WM

[1

Water Storage describes how to store water for home, farm, and small
communities. It will help you design storage for just about any use,
including fire safety and emergency, in just about any contexturban,
rural, or village.
This book includes:
general principles to help you design, construct, and use any
water system
a look at common mistakes and how to avoid them
how the different kinds of storage can serve youtanks,
groundwater, and ponds
how to determine the optimum amount of storage for your needs
how to determine the best shape and material for your storage
how to manage aquifers sustainably for inexpensive storage of water
in the ground
plumbing details for inlets, outlets, drains, overflows, access, etc.
storage accessories and gadgets such as automatic shutoff valves,
remote level indicators, ozonators, and filters
how to build your own high-quality tank from ferrocement
original design innovationspublished here for the first timeto
improve the quality of stored water, increase water security, make
maintenance easier, and reduce environmental impacts
real-life examples of storage designs for a wide range of contexts

Traditional handformed, rock-burnished

clay water vessel in
Michoacan, Mexico.

This book offers underlying design principles as

well as design specifics. If you run into a situation
not specifically covered, there's a good chance you'll
be able to use these general principles to figure it out
yourself.
Installed water storage typically costs fifty cents
to three dollars or more a gallon ($60-200/m'1). If
you've got this book in your hands, you're probably
on the verge of making decisions about hundreds or
thousands of dollars' worth of storage. On an average water system, this book could pay for itself a
J
W jT > . <
* --Jew-"
'JU. r^VVo *" jfttjfc'i fti
hundred times over in savings on construction and
1,1
' ^V1 * i^ij- -**1--> JcSL'*
maintenance.
Most of the information otherwise available on
water storage comes from vendors. Oasis Design
doesn't sell water storage hardware so vnn r W f u
3,500 gallon
abUt
bemg steered toward staff you don t n e e ' d f a t h e r
T ^
ferrocement rainwater
0 U r H v i n S by
providing information to help people have
t ^
storage
urn (construcP p e p l e h a v e a ^ g h e r quality of life with
lower impact.
tion photos p. 105).

IB

Wishing you best of luck with your projects,

Art Ludwig

Parker Abercromb

ie

9 i c h c l I e Howard

ii

ipter f : Thinking About Water 1

Store Water?
1
ver Peaks in Demand Smooth Out Variations in Supply
Provide Water Security in Case of Supply Interruptions or
saster Save Your Home from Fire Meet Legal Requirents Improve Water Quality Provide Thermal Storage
d Freeze Protection Enable a Smaller Pipe to Serve for a
stant Source
gn Principles
3
iter System Design Perfection and Security Standard
lunning Water People, Still Water People Separate
ndling for Different Qualities of Water Design Horizon
design for Failure, Design for Change Where the Stuff in
iter Ends Up What Do You Have? What Can You Find?
Water Quality Changes in Storage
9
jys to Improve Water Quality in Storage Hazardous
sinfection Byproducts Effects of Heating Bacterial
growth The Problem of Leaching Water Age How to
it Stored Water

ipter 2 : Ways to Store Water

(HDPE #2) Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM)

Fiberglass (Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyester, GRP) EpoxyCoated Steel or Concrete Masonry in and over Plastic Galvanized Steel with Plastic Membrane Interior Membranes
for Repair Plastic Bladders Goat Bladders, Leather, Etc.
Tank Footings and Floors
48
Tank Roofs
50
Water-Harvesting Roof
Tank Costs
50
Really Cheap Storage
Regulatory Requirements
52
Zoning Architectural Guidelines Building Department
Fire Department Health Department
Hazards of Stored Water & How to Avoid Them 52
Drowning Structural Collapse Flooding Pestilence
Toxic Contamination liability Exposure
Water Tanks for Special Applications
54
Pressure Tanks Break Pressure Tanks Hot Water Storage
Tanks for Transporting Water

Chapter 4 : Common Features of

ce Direct (No Storage)
14
Water Tanks
e Water in Soil
15
55
e Water in Aquifers
16
Inlet
55
w Water Gets into and Moves through Aquifers How to
Outlet
Z.Z.56
rease the Amount of Water in Your Aquifer Conjunctive Service Access
56
e Overdrawing, Mining Fossil Groundwater Protecting Drain
58
jundwater Quality
Tanks with No Drain Drain Location and Orientation
i Water in Ponds
20
Overflow
62
Critter-Proofing
65
les of Man-Made Ponds and Where to Put Them Pond
ter Sources Evaporation Pond Size * Pond Depth
Air Vent
65
Sunscreen and Shade
65
id Shape Pond Inlets and Outlets Pond Liners Levee
istruction Wildlife and Ponds Sport Fish in Ponds
id Maintenance
Chapter 5 : Optional Water Tank
: Water in Open Tanks, Swimming Pools
27
66
Features
27
: Water in Tanks
66
Inlet Meter, Filter, Gauges
Inlet Float Valve
^6
ipter 3 : Water Tank Design
28 Inlet Combined with Outlet
"6
Inlet Aerator
Components Overview
28
Inlet Diffuser to Improve Settling
iting Water Tanks
; vation ' Stability of Soil and Slope - Aesthetics, Sacred
Outlet Screen or Filter
6g
Variable Height Outlet
" gg
Outlet Float
;
69
its Security Buried Storage
^
Water Hammer Air Cushion
6<)
Level Indicators
71
Ozonators
71
1 men You Have Limited Water Supply with SchedDrain Extension or Battle
71
Outlet and Overflow Curves
71
pump Controls, Alarms, and Switches
^
IT Shape
39
Sand Filter
""
72
k Materials
".ferroCement GalvaMultiple Tank Management
73
[aterials Situations to Avoid - Glass t
^
^ Freeze Protection
<zed Steel Stainless Steel PaneUan
^ ^
#
Polyethylene
BrflSS .
Brick Clay Wood 1 lastic
g
ni

75

Chapter 6 : Emergency Storage

75
75
76
77
78

How Much Emergency Water Do You Need?

Emergency Storage You Already Have
Longterm Storage in Small Containers
Protecting Stored Water
Systems for Firefighting
Fire Safety Plan Water System Design for Fire

Chapter 7 : Examples of Storage

Systems for Different Contexts

82

Poor Surface Water Quality, Limited

Groundwater
Only Stored Water in Dry Season, Hydroelectric
in Wet Season
Creek Direct with Remote Storage and Sand
Filtration
Very, Very Low Pressure
Simple Jungle Eden
Rural House with Well
Urban Apartment
Swank Suburban House

82
83
85
87
88
88
88
89

Appendix A: Measurements and

Conversions

90

Appendix B: Tank Loads and

Structural Considerations

91

Appendix C: More About Plastics 94

Appendix D: How to Make
Ferrocement Tanks

95

Ultra-Light Ferrocement over a Form: Jumbo Thai

Jar Plans
96
Ultra-Light-Duty Ferrocement Description
100
Light-Duty Ferrocement Plans
101
Medium-Duty Shaped Ferrocement Photos
104
Heavy-Duty Ferrocement Plans
107
Tools Materials * Labor Design Site Prep Grade for the
Floor * Drain Floor and Inside Wall: Welded Wire Mesh
Floor and Wall: Rebar Inlet, Outlet, and Overflow Hardware Wall Outer Welded Wire Mesh, First Layer of Lath,
and Hardware Cloth Lift the Whole Thing up and Get Ready
to Pour Pour the Floor The Roof, Cool Shapes, Ladder
Lath and Hardware Cloth Plaster Prep: Roof Supports, Seal
Door Plaster the Whole Tank Keep It Wet Color and Seal
It Fill It

Endnotes

.120

Index

.121

iv

Water tower in California's Central Valley.

Note size of person on top.

F I G U R E 1: T U N N E L V I S I O N VS. GLOBAL,

DETAILED

TABLE

1: DIFFERENT

FOR DIFFERENT

FIGURE

2: COMMON

FIGURE

3: HOW

FIGURE

2: HOW

DIRECT

5: SIDE

FIGURE

6: AQUIFER,

TABLE

VIEW

3: POND

USES

7
9

WATER

WATER

IN A SEPTIC

TANK

10

SYSTEM

14

IN SOIL DIFFERS

OF IMPACTS
SPRING,

VIEW

PROBLEMS

FILTERS

STORAGE

FIGURE

QUALITIES

STORAGE

SETTLING

4: CREEK

TABLE

WATER

FROM STORAGE

TO AQUIFER

AND WELL

IN AQUIFERS

IN RIVER

VALLEY

17

TYPES

18

CHARACTERISTICS

22

FIGURE 7: POND CONSTRUCTION CLASSES

FIGURE
TABLE

8: LEVEE
4:

PRESSURES

FIGURE

9: WATER

FIGURE

10:

TABLE
FIGURE

VS. TANK

WATER

6: COVERING

26

FOR DIFFERENT

SECURITY

HOURLY

11:

22

CROSS-SECTION

WATER

APPLICATIONS

30

SIZE FOR DIFFERENT

SOURCES....33

USE

34

USE DURING

GRAPHICAL

INTERRUPTIONS

CALCULATION

IN SUPPLY

OF STORAGE

FOR

35

RAINWATER

HARVESTING
FIGURE
TABLE

12:

35

TANK

SHAPES

37

7: CHARACTERISTICS

OF DIFFERENT

FIGURE

13:

TANK

FOOTINGS

FIGURE

14:

COST

PER GALLON

FIGURE

15:

COMMON

16:

DRAIN

17:

RETROFIT

FIGURE

18:

DRAIN

FIGURE

19:

OVERFLOW

FIGURE

20:

CRITICAL

FIGURE

21:

INLET

COMBINED

FIGURE

22:

TANK

OPTIONAL

RETROFIT

OF WATER

FOR STEEL

OF PLASTIC

MATERIALS

40

TYPES

OF STORAGE

55

TANK

59

TANK

60
61

AND INLET
OVERFLOW

HEIGHT

HEIGHT

SPECIFICATIONS

OF A RAINWATER

62

CISTERN

64

WITH OUTLET
FEATURES:

67

INLET

DIFFUSER,

OUTLET

WATER

FIGURE

24:

TANK

FIGURE

25:

OUTLET

FIGURE

26:

PLUMBING

FIGURE

27:

SWING

28:

CALIFORNIA

68

HAMMER

AIR

OPTIONAL

CUSHION

FEATURES:

69

LEVEL

INDICATOR,

OZONATOR

CURVES

JOINT

FOR MULTIPLE

ATTACHMENT
DESERT

8: HUEHUECOYOTL
29:

CREEK

DIRECT

30:

SMALL

SAND

FIGURE

31:

ULTRA

LOW

SYSTEM

HEAD

73
HYDRANT

ELEVATIONS

84

STORAGE

FOR DRINKING

SYSTEM

85

ONLY

86

STORAGE

87

FIGURE 3 2 : PRESSURE DEPENDS ON WATER DEPTH ALONE

33:3
10:

97
FOR 3 M3 FERROCEMENT

FIGURE

34:

FIGURE

35:3

FIGURE

36:46

M3 LIGHT-DUTY

FIGURE

37:46

M3 FERROCEMENT

FIGURE

38:46

M3 TANK

3 M3 THAI JAR SECTION

97

AND PLAN

11:

BILL OF MATERIALS

12:

TANK

FERROCEMENT
TANK

FOR A 46

MATERIALS

TANK

101

ROOF

102
103

M3 FERROCEMENT

AND SPECIFICATIONS

BY TANK

HEAVY-DUTY

FERROCEMENT

ROOF

AND FLOOR

FERROCEMENT

TANK

(SECTION)

FIGURE

40:

HEAVY-DUTY

FIGURE

41:

POSSIBLE

FIGURE

42:

WALL

FIGURE

43:

HOOP

FIGURE

44:

HOW

FERROCEMENT

AND FLOOR
SPACING

DESIGN

JOINT

INNOVATIONS

DETAIL

FOR DIFFERENT

TO JOIN REBAR

98
99

CONSTRUCTION

TABLE

39:

JAR

M3 JAR CONSTRUCTION

TABLE

FIGURE

91

M3 ]AR MOLD
BILL OF MATERIALS
FERROCEMENT

80
82

COMPONENTS

WITH REMOTE
FILTER

TANKS

FOR A SMALL

WATER

SYSTEM

FIGURE

.70
71

OPTIONS

FIGURE

TABLE

FILTER,

OUTLET

23:

FIGURE

51

TANKS

OPTIONS

FIGURE

TABLE

FOR DIFFERENT

FEATURES

FIGURE

FIGURE

TANK

49

FIGURE

VARIABLE

.15

END

TANK

104

SIZE

108

PLANS

110
ILL
112
113

HEIGHT

TO END

WALLS

114
114

Two deep pools provide storage equal to a day's summer flow on

San Jose Creek, where much of this book was written. The way
this improves water quality is described on p. 11.

To achieve your design goals for a water system, it is helpful to know what
your goals are. The first order of business is to consider:

Nearly all water systems include some form of storage, most commonly a
tank. Storage can be used to:
cover peaks in demand
> smooth out variations in supply
provide water security in case of supply interruptions or disaster
save your home from fire
meet legal requirements
improve water quality
provide thermal storage and freeze protection
enable a smaller pipe to serve for a distant source
We're going to consider each of these reasons to store water, then look at
design principles to help you frame the goals for your project.

Cover Peaks in Demand

The most common function of water storage is to cover short term use flows that are
greater than the flow of the water source. For example, a tiny, one gallon-per-minute
spring supplies 1440 gallons a day. This is several times more than most homes use in
a day. However, almost every fixture in the home consumes water at a faster rate than 1
gpm while it is turned on. Even a low-flow shower head uses about 1.5 gpm.1"
By using water stored in a tank, you can supply water to the shower faster than it is
flowing from the spring. After the shower, the water will be coming in faster than it is
going out, and the tank level will rise back up.
If you had a 10,000 gal tank, you could run a 100 gpm fire hosecreating the kind of
blast used to bowl over hostile crowdson the stored water from this tiny spring, for an
hour and a half! Hopefully the fire would be out by then, as the tank would take several
days to refill.

Smooth out Variations in Supply

In some circumstances, your storage needs will be affected by variations in the water
supply. For instance, if the supply is rainwater, you will need enough storage to make it
through the intervals between rainfalls. A six-month, rainless dry season requires a heck
of a lot more storage than the most common kind of variable supplya well pump that
cycles on and off.
If you have a well that taps stored groundwater, a tank will save wear and tear on
your pump, because the pump won't have to switch on and off every time you open a
tap.

Provide Water Security in Case of Supply Interruptions or

Disaster
In many places, the water supply chain from source to tap is long and made of many
delicate links. If a cow steps on the supply line, a pump breaks, a wire works loose, the
electricity goes out, the city misplaces your check, or there is a natural disaster, your
water flow could stop. By locating your storage as few chain links away as possible
from your use point, a large measure of security is added:
'"Baffled, by a measurement? See Appendix A, p. 90. Metric units for exam-pie above: Spring supplies 3.8 Ipm, or
5.5 m'iday. Low-flow showcrhcad uses 5.7 Ipm. 38 m'1 tank can supply 1400 Ipm fire hose for 1.5 hrs.

Short on Water
By 2025 at least 3.5
billion peopleabout
half the world's populationwill live in
areas without enough
water for agriculture,
industry, and human
needs... Worldwide,
water quality conditions appear to have
degraded in almost all
regions with intensive agriculture and
in large urban and
industrial areas.
World Resources
Institute, October
2000

 In case of earthquake, hurricane, flood, etc., storage can be slowly emptied to meet
essential needs until service is restored.
If your well or electrical pump goes out, or your spring lines wash out, with storage you have water until you can get it fixed.

Save Your Home from Fire

Designing a system to be effective for combating fire can change its specifications
radically. To put out a fire, your stored water needs to be available at a flow rate many
times greater than normal. (If you want your system to have this capability, see Systems
for Firefighting, p. 78.)

Meet Legal Requirements

Sometimes you may be required to install water storage simply to meet a legal requirement. On the other hand, you may be able to trade increased water storage for
slack on a different legal requirement. For example, if you provide a large amount of
water with good pressure that is reserved for fire emergency, a sprinkler system, and/
or a hydrant, the fire department might allow you to build a narrower driveway with a
smaller turnaround farther from the house than they would otherwisethereby saving
you a fortune.

Improve Water Quality

The water coming out of a properly designed tank can be of significantly higher
quality than the water that goes into it. This is mostly due to attrition and settling (see
Ways to Improve Water Quality in Storage, p. 10). Add an ozonator, and a tank becomes
a substantial treatment step (see Ozonators, p. 71).

Provide Thermal Storage and Freeze Protection

Water has higher specific heatstores more thermal energy per unit of weightthan
any other common material. A large thermal mass of water stored within a solar greenhouse or home can help to keep it cooler in the day and warmer at night.
Also, as water changes to ice, it radiates a tremendous amount of stored energy.
Imagine how much gas it would take to melt a water tank-sized ice cube. When water
freezes, it releases this same amount of energy. This is why irrigating for frost protection
is effective. The stored energy in water can prevent a water tank or nearby components
from freezing (though in the coldest climates this may not be sufficientsee Freeze
Protection, p. 73).
Evaporation consumes even more energy, which is why swamp coolers and cooling
towers are effective. Water is also an effective heat transfer medium.
Finally, in rare instances it can be economical to use elevated water storage as a "battery," from which electricity is derived by running it through a hydroelectric turbine.

Enable a Smaller Pipe to Serve for a Distant Source

If the flow of your source exceeds the peak demand, you can connect to it directly
without storage. However, if the source is distant, it may be cheaper to run a small pipe
to nearby storage, and a big pipe from there to the use point. The small pipe would be
sized to the average use, the big pipe to the peak use. The savings in materials and labor
from running a smaller pipe over most of the distance can often pay for the storage and
then some.

Design Principles
This book sees water storage through the lens of integrated, ecological
systems designa view that is both global and finely detailed. You don't
need to share this view to value the utility of the material in this book or
benefit from its application. However, the ecological design approach offers
so much advantage for so many pressing issues, I feel compelled to take a
moment to look at the design of systems before diving into the details of water
storage. (If you are not in the mood for design philosophy, please skip ahead
to Separate Handling for Different Qualities of Water, p. 6.)
Ecological systems design has been my day job since 1982. My focus
since 1989 has been the design of water and wastewater systems. I've
designed, built, and studied water systems in 20 countries, covering many
applications, in a wide range of natural and cultural conditions.
I designed my own major in ecological systems design, which I completed at UC Berkeley However, my most important insights have occurred in
the countless rugged miles I've logged exploring extraordinary wild water
systems. I've become very aware of how water quality changes as it moves
through natural and engineered systems. This, and my experience testing
water, have led to many realizations that have influenced the designs in this book.
My approach to designand way of lifeare described in Principles of Ecological
Design1 a booklet I wrote in 1989. In brief, to design ecologically follow these principles:
Transcend market cultureThe main obstacles to living with nature are cultural, not
technical or economic. Much of American culture has been designed by marketeers,
and is diametrically opposed to living cheaply and ecologically.
Follow nature's exampleNatural water systems are vastly more sophisticated and
elegant than artificial ones. Pay them heedthey are the gold standard.
Intervene as little as possibleChoose the inherently simplest solution, then implement it as well as possible. Remember that maintenance increases with number of
parts, and that any moving mechanical part is itself many parts.
Understand that context is everythingThe context must be known in order to determine if a design is "good" or not. There are no universal solutions. There are approaches and patterns that can be applied to generate the optimum solution in a variety of
contexts. Nature provides diverse solutions to all problems; she never repeats. Every
branch of the tree is a different shape that fits its purpose exactly.
Overcome tunnel visionDesign with a global, yet detailed view. A market economy
tends to promote tunnel vision, using an exponentially increasing amount of money
and resources to get higher performance on a narrow set of parameters, while the
whole withers.
Use appropriate technologyCleverly matching the level of technology and power of
your tools to the task at hand is cheaper, healthier, lower impact, and more enjoyable
yet ultimately more powerful than any single solution.
Practice moderate and efficient resource useFossil fuels and electricity have severed
the connection between energy source and consumer. One thin pair of wires can silently channel an unbelievable amount of energy to a pump deep underground without
creating a ripple of awareness. This has enabled our relationship with energy to skew
way out of scale. (Consider how you'd conserve if you were walking down 40 flights of
stairs and carrying water back up in buckets.)
Empower users' awareness and creativityDesign for monitoring and adjustment.
We kid ourselves that our artifacts are immortal, but they all fail with time. Nature
allows for failures, using the information to improve her designs and building in flexibility for changing conditions.
Make true progressMost of what is commonly called "progress" is the relocation of
problems out of sight in space or time. True progress actually solves problems.

Oasis team hard at

work in the office "annex:" Art, Michelle, and
Parker. Most of the
work on this book was
done near this swimming hole or in our
jungle of greywaterand stored
rainwaterirrigated fruit trees.
This oasis is surrounded at the moment by
drought-dessiccated
scrub, people concerned about water
scarcity, and the rumble of well-drilling rigs
going deeper, deeper...

Water System Design

Here's what general ecological design principles look like when applied to the design
of water systems:
Minimize overall negative impact on natural and social systemsThe easy way to
do this is to spend as little money and use as little water as possible.
Create positive impactsFor example, by slowly releasing stored water to the ecosystem during the dry season.
Leave as much of the water work as possible to nature.
Divert water just after evaporation or soil has naturally purified itSo that it requires no further treatment.
Divert water higher than the point of storage and points of useIf possible.
Conserve pressure in the plumbingSo that minimal or no pumping is required.
Use adequately, but not excessively, sized pipeTo reduce friction loss where it matters, and use pipe that's as small as possible where friction loss doesn't matter.
Design to extract benefit from other attributes of your waterE.g., nutrients,
softness, temperature, and pressure.
Rigorously confine materials that are incompatible with natural cycles(Such as
motor oil and solvents) to their own industrial cycles.
Add to water only materials that biodegrade into plant nutrients or non toxinsE.g.,
biocompatible cleaning products.
Add these materials in an order that lets water cascade through multiple usesFrom
those that require the cleanest water to those that tolerate the dirtiest.
Distribute the nutrient-laden final effluent to topsoilFor on-site purification/reuse.
It is worth reflecting on these principles before you spend thousands of dollars on
your water system.
All design is the art of trade-off. The cost-benefit curve for most design parameters
shows diminishing returns. It goes up steeply at first, then levels off. However, the tradeoffs and external costs continue to increase. If you push too far trying to maximize a few
parameters at the expense of everything else, you will wind up with less and less total
benefit. With too narrow or fuzzy a view, a myopic push to maximize the parameters in
sight will inevitably compromise the parameters that are not seen (see Tunnel Vision, at
right).
It is relatively easy to save water by wasting energy, or to save water and energy by
wasting materials and money. It is relatively hard to make an overall improvement. The
easiest ways to achieve this are to:

get and stay clear on big picture goals

change the specifications so that the full range of effects are explicitly considered
improve the fit between subsystems
decide what is least necessary and cut it out
make some lifestyle accommodation

Perfection and Security Standard

A water system's perfection and security standard can be expressed as the percentage
of time the system is "up." If your water is on nine days in ten, that's 90%. If your system
is down three days a year, that is a perfection and security standard of 99%. If your water
were off only one day every ten years, that would be a 99.97% standard.
The perfection and security standard is a relatively invisible design parameter. It is
almost never discussed openly, even though it can influence the design more than just
about anything. Here in America, where the culture is fear-based and where business
interests dictate government policy, there tends to be runaway inflation in perfection
and security standards. Our grandparents carried water in buckets from an open well in
the backyard, yet we fear we'll die if the tap isn't always capable of delivering way more
sterile water than we need, at high pressure.

Overcome Tunnel Vision with a Global, Detailed View

Tunnel vision is the number one problem behind much conventional water system development. Design tunnel vision
is characterized by application of lots of resources in pursuit of narrowly defined goals, with little or no attention to the
big picture. Tunnel vision is very profitable for special interests in a market economy.
Pushing legislation that mandates higher standards for a few parameters within the tunnel vision view is a diabolically effective leverage point for increasing profits at the expense of the overall good.
To optimize the overall performance, strive for a global, yet detailed view-the essence of ecological systems design.

FIGURE 1 : TUNNEL VISION v s . GLOBAL, DETAILED VIEW

TUNNEL VISION

GLOBAL, DETAILED VIEW

...as long as you don't look outside the

...until you grasp the whole picture

tunnel

Good

/ Y

-S-

-isr
CD

IT

0
01

(n

"O

CL

F-

o
Profiteers will push hard for this scenario,
negative impacts he damned.

-/V

"V

Good

With my clients, I always haul the perfection and security standard out in the
open for conscious consideration. You don't want to design for having water 100% of
the time. To go from having water 95% of the time to 98%, to 99%, to 99.5% requires
roughly a doubling of expense and environmental impact for each increase.
You need to take into account the consequences of insufficient storage, your emergency supply options, environmental impacts, and your budget to determine an
appropriate perfection and security standard for your system. If it doesn't really matter
much if you run out of water, why spend a fortune on storage? Then again, if you have
a kidney dialysis machine or some other critical application, obviously you'll want to
set the security standard higher.

Running Water People, Still Water People

Worldwide, people who have pressurized water on tap use about a hundred gallons
a day per capita. People who carry water use about ten gallons a day to accomplish
much the same tasks. Most of the difference is waste. It is easier to let a tap run than to
turn it on and off. In contrast, still water just sits there serenely until you scoop it up.
On a typical construction site in an industrialized country there are hoses with
spray nozzlespush the lever and water blasts out.
In non-industrialized societies, there are typically a couple of big drums and buckets of water for construction use. Since almost none of the construction water needs to
be clean, the water is cascaded through various uses. For example, tools that have been
used for adobe or cement are cleaned in a drum, and the muddy (or cement-y) water
is then reused to make adobe (or concrete). Water for washing hands is scooped out of
a "clean" construction water drum into a bucket, and then dumped into a "muddy"
drum when it is dirty.
The non-industrialized method has advantages for both consumption and disposal.
The water consumption (and energy consumption, if the water is pumped) is a fraction
as much as in the industrialized scenario. Also, instead of leaving a giant toxic puddle
of cement water, all the cement water is incorporated into the masonry work. (We are
working on development of hybrid plumbing systems that combine the convenience of
pressurized water with the efficiency and aesthetic benefits of still water.)

Separate Handling for Different Qualities of Water

In many contexts, it makes sense to use different qualities of water for different
purposes. Depending on the water use, the specifications (including those for storage)
may be quite different (see Table 1). If more than one type of water needs storage, the
storage will have to be separate.
As a kid, I irrigated my first garden with water siphoned from a child's swimming
pool that was used as a duck pond. Clear well water went into the pond, and after a
week's storage, I drew out thick, chunky pea soup-looking water. For the garden, duck
poop water was better than potable water. These qualities of water often are stored
separately:
Drinking waterRequires the most stringent specifications for source, storage, and
security, but is used in the smallest quantity. You might be able to make your life
much easier by making a separate system with separate storage for drinking water.
(For an example, see Creek Direct with Remote Storage and Sand Filter, p. 85.)
Irrigation waterHas the least stringent specifications for water quality, storage,
and security, and is typically used in the largest quantity. It can be stored separately
in inexpensive, high-capacity storage such as soil, ponds, or aquifers. Water for irrigating fruit trees and shrubs can be of lower bacteriological quality than water used
for irrigating vegetables consumed raw.
Greywater(Household washwater) should not be stored in a tank for more than
24 hours. It is best to route it to soil as it is generated and store it there. (See our book
Create an Oasis with Greywater / Common Mistakes and Preferred Practices.2)

 Rainwater from roofsIs especially suited for hair washing, laundry, and flushing
salts from the soil, due to its extreme softness. In the old days, inns would have a pitcher of spring water for drinking, and a separate basin of rainwater for washing.
It is prudent to plumb rainwater downspouts to your greywater distribution or irrigation system (if you have one) so the soft rainwater can flush irrigation salts from the
soil, as it soaks in and recharges the groundwater. It is not necessary to have storage to
do this; it is actually most effective to do it while it is raining.
If you have a separate rainwater harvesting tank, you can plumb it to supply the washing machine and bathtub, with any extra going to the toilet and the overflow to salt
flushing. (See our forthcoming book Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff Management})
Runoff waterGenerally suitable only for irrigation, flushing salts from the soil, or
groundwater recharge. (See Store Water in Aquifers, p. 16, and Rainwater Harvesting and
Runoff Management.)
TABLE 1 : DIFFERENT W A T E R QUALITIES FOR DIFFERENT U S E S

Contamination limits
Fecal bacteria
per 100 ml

Use
Drinking water for sensitive humans
Well-direct groundwater recharge
Drinking water for resistant humans

Turbidity

Toxins

0 Almost none

Almost none

0 Almost none

Almost none
Almost none

10 Low

Drinking water for livestock

300 Moderate

Almost none

Dishwashing water

300 Moderate

Low

Bathing water

300 Moderate

Low

Laundry water

1,000 Moderate

Moderate

Toilet flushing water

1,000 Doesn't matter

Moderate

Irrigation of annual vegetables

1,000 Doesn't matter

Moderate

Groundwater recharge through

mulch-filled infiltration basins

3,000 Doesn't matter

Moderate

Irrigation of fruit trees

3,000 Doesn't matter

Moderate

Subsurface irrigation

10,000,000,000 Doesn't matter

Irrigation of non-fruit trees

3,000 Doesn't matter

Matters least

3,000 Almost none

Moderate

Drip irrigation

Notes
Needs to taste good
Needs to taste good

Best if low in calcium, magnesium

Moderate
Will clog if it has lots of solids

Warning: These figures are based on my observations of what is working in practice, and depart radically from
legal standards at pointsfollow them at your own risk. Our other water books and articles have more information about different qualities of water for different purposes.4

Design Horizon
Water supply systems should typically be designed and built for a 1 5 - to 25-year life
span. The biggest variable over this time is often the population. Population determines
the needed capacity for tanks, pipe sizes, etc. If long-range water demands cannot be accurately forecast, a shorter design span can be used. Note that providing abundant water
tends to make the population bloom, exerting a feedback effect.
One of the best ways to account for changes in future storage needs is to provide
for the addition of more storage laterfor example, in additional tanks (see Figure 26,
Plumbing Options for Multiple Tanks, p. 73). Instead of putting your first tank smack in
the middle of the one area where tanks could go, put it to one side. Later, you'll be able
to add more tanks next to it if necessary.

Design for Failure, Design for Change

Another key to good water system design is to consider how the components will
age, and what to do when they fail. Every piece of the system is going to fail someday.
Ask yourself what is going to happen when it does. Will its failure be dramatic, or
mundane? How long will it take to fail? Can the failed part be accessed for cleaning,
repair, replacement, reuse, or recycling?
Good design makes it easy to change the systemto add another tank, a new connection, a valve, etc. As you're making the original installation, picture your future self
having to come back to expand or repair the system, and make it easy to do so.
Take a look at Figure 18, Drain Options (p. 61), for example. You'll notice that the sections of PVC pipe between fittings are long enough that you could saw through them in
the middle and still have enough pipe on both sides to insert a replacement valve, insert
a tee to another pipe line, or make some other change or repair without having to throw
anything away. If the fittings were all glued together "hub to hub," with no exposed pipe
between them, to change anything you'd have to throw everything away.
Likewise, the galvanized pipe nipples in Figure 18 are the smallest size that still
allows for a pipe wrench to grip the pipe. Shorter nipples are one-use; to get them out
you've got to grip them with the wrench on the threads, which wrecks them.

Where the Stuff in Water Ends Up

One key to good water system design is to focus less on the water. Sure, the water is
significant. However, there is a tendency to think that when the water is taken care of,
the design is done. Most designs fail to account adequately for the other stuff in water:

materials that sink to the bottom

materials that float on the surface
materials that dissolve into or out of the water
the air that is displaced by water
water-seeking critters that crawl or fly into the system

Take care of the other stuff, and the water will just about take care of itself. Moreover,
your system will deliver higher-quality water more reliably be less quirky, and last
longer.
This is especially true if your design parameters are extreme in any way: lots of sediment and floating crud, very low pressure, barely enough water, wild fluctuations in
supply or use, etc.
How do you design for the other stuff? It's easy: Not just the water, but all the stuff
that comes along with it (and the air it displaces) have to go somewhere. Simply ask
yourself, "Where are the air, sand, leaves, rust chunks, mineral deposits, spiders, frogs,
and mosquitoes going to end up in my system?" Consider different design scenarios and
you'll find the best overall disposition of the water and its companions. (See Figure 2,
Common Storage Problems, p. 9.)

What Do You Have? What Can You Find?

In practice, people are likely to use a tank they already have, or the one that's sitting
in the boneyard down the street, or a tank that can be purchased easily and inexpensively. This is true even if the tank is considerably smaller or bigger, of another material,
or otherwise out of sync with the theoretical ideal. Cheap and easy weigh very heavily in
practical terms.
Salvage storage is often economically and ecologically superior, if you can find it. One
community I know purchased a used 50,000 gal tank for a good price. This tank is made
much better than the brand-new, modern, galvanized tank next to it. Even though it is
decades older, it looks like it is going to outlast the new tank.

H@w Wat@r Quality Ciasigdg in Storage

The quality of water in natural and man-made systems is constantly changing. Every
inch and every minute it is differentsometimes minutely sometimes radically.
The water coming out of properly designed storage can be of significantly higher
quality than the water that goes into it. Conversely, poorly designed storage can
degrade water quality.
Changes in water quality can be physical and/or biological, intentional or unintentional. Intentional changes are accompanied by unintentional consequences. (For
example, chlorination of water containing organic matter results in the formation of toxic
trihalomethanes.) Some of these changes don't matter; some do.
The purpose of this section is to equip you to make sure the quality of your water
improves in storage. We're going to look at:
ways to improve water quality in storage
hazardous disinfection byproducts
effects of heating
bacterial regrowth
the problem of leaching
water age
how to test stored water
(There is more information on water quality under Tank Materials, p. 39, and
Emergency Storage, p. 75-76.)
FIGURE 2 : COMMON STORAGE PROBLEMS

Missing or ineffective lid

Coupled with absence of a ladder,
is a drowning hazard. Lets light in,
which fuels algae growth

Rectangular shape
Is materially and structurally
inefficient

Airlock

Access flush with roof allows rain

to flush animal droppings, leaves & paint
flakes inside
Thirsty rat emery

Sun on unshaded tank

Causes it to incubate
bacteria

(':/.' EXIT)

Spring water

Sediment trap
Sand and gravel will
accumulate here

Lead-based paint on
inside, plus residuals
from earlier life as
petroleum tank

Mosquitoes
Mn/et below
overflow
Can
contaminate
well

Stirred up sediment
From falling inlet
water

Sediment
sucking off
into system

Can enter unscreened

bottom
^

outlet

PVC in sunlight Leaches

carcinogens
into the water

Uncontrolled overflow
Out the access opening
and down the side of the
tank softens the soil
supporting the tank,
causing it to stink and tilt

~ Leaks where tank has

rusted through

High outlet
Lots of dead
storage,
but drains nearly whole
tank before you realize
supply is interrupted
(no reserve)

Fipeoutletslo^ir^J^i
*

- Sharp rocks
Under tank

"Sediment
3uilds up for years, as without a drain it's
too difficult to remove it. Instead, once
it's deep enough, it gets sucked out the
outlet into the system

Water to system
Includes much of the grit,^11
organic matter, and
critters that come in

Ways to Improve Water Quality in Storage

AttritionIn a well-designed container reduces harmful pathogens; they die off faster
than they multiply. This is because human pathogens are designed to thrive in the
human body, not a cold, nearly nutrient-free, dark water tank. The longer the water is
stored and the less favorable the survival conditions, the more attrition occurs.
SettlingIn a still tank can reduce the amount of suspended solids (turbidity) in the water. Materials denser
v
J
than water sink; materials less dense than water float.
Settling for hours or days is a highly effective, low-mainte- t^aw
nance form of filtration. This is (in part) how a septic tank
sewage
Floating soliJls
turns chunky raw sewage into clarified septic effluent
water that you can often see right through. This same
principle works on drinking water in a tank; it can turn
it from clear to really clear. Bacteria in water can "ride"
Settleable solids
in the suspended solids, so settling can also reduce the
- J . I
i_J
amount of bacteria in the water column. The more still the
water and the longer it sits, the more settling. The smallest, most neutrally buoyant particles will never settle. The
jiggling of the water molecules themselves keeps them aloft.
DeflocculationSpeeds settling. Treatment plants add a coagulant such as alum to
make particles clump together and settle. This is beyond the scope of most small water
systems.
PasteurizationWill kill most pathogens; for example, by heating drinking water to
149F (65C) for five minutes.
OzonationKills pathogens by oxidizing them with hyper-reactive, unstable molecules consisting of three oxygen atoms together instead of the usual two. An adequately sized tank is a key element for treatment with ozone. A tank full of water
saturated with dissolved ozone can handle spikes in the amount of incoming debris
and / or pathogens, whereas the low, steady output of the ozonator by itself could easily be overwhelmed. (See Ozonators, p. 71.)
Ultraviolet lightKills pathogens by frying them with high-energy light waves just
above the visible spectrum. Normally a UV light goes in a pipe rather than a tank, to
ensure that all the water is illuminated.
ChlorinationKills pathogens. Unlike ozone, UV, or heat, chlorine has a long-lasting
residual that continues killing microorganisms long after it has been added. For example, chlorine added at the tank can be effective all the way from the tank, through
the distribution system, to the tap.
AerationCauses some chemical contaminants to oxidize to less noxious forms, while
it causes others (such as chlorine and some aromatic hydrocarbons) to evaporate. It
also discourages anaerobic bacteria. Aeration can be accomplished simply by using an
inlet aerator (p. 67).

Hazardous Disinfection Byproducts

Disinfection with chlorine produces toxic, unintentional byproducts when it reacts
with organic matter in water. These include carcinogenic trihalomethanes. Chlorinated
drinking water causes at least 4,200 cases of bladder cancer and 6,500 cases of rectal
cancer a year in the US. 5 If at all possible, it is better to avoid the use of chlorine. Ozone is
used in Europe, for example. If the use of chlorine is unavoidable, filter suspended solids
from the water first, and use as little chlorine as possible.

Effects of Heating
' Heating water causes physical and chemical changes, some of which linger after the
water has cooled:

10

FIGURE 3 : H o w
SETTLING FILTERS
W A T E R IN A
SEPTIC T A N K

M B i
L
I

S
Clear water

 Reduction in the amount of dissolved gassesMost

significantly oxygen. Gasses are driven out of water
by heating. Those little bubbles that form on the bottom of a pot long before the water boils are not steam;
they are the dissolved air being driven out of solution.
Water saturated with dissolved air tastes better, and is
better for irrigating plants.
Precipitation of calcium carbonateOn heating,
calcium can precipitate out of solution, potentially
clogging pipes and boilers.
PasteurizationEliminates pathogens.

Bacterial Regrowth
Without disinfection (or sometimes with it), there
can be vigorous growth of microorganisms on the inside
surfaces of water infrastructure. There are numerous
studies on this phenomenon, 6 but they skim over the
most important question: are these bacteria a health
problem?
The impression I get is that people who manage and
study water systems are offended by the idea of bacteria
in their system, whether or not they are hazardous. The
most damning indictment of bacterial regrowth seems
to be that their colonies could offer shelter to other,
actually harmful organisms if they found their way into
the system. Bacterial regrowth on its own does not appear to be a health issue.*
Water bottles that are reused over and over without
washing develop vigorous bacterial growth, to the point
that it can be seen and smelled. But there doesn't seem
to be any indication that this is anything other than an
aesthetic issue. (Studies have shown serious problems
with household water containers in village settings, but
the problem is not bacterial regrowth from clean water;
it is unwashed hands introducing fecal matter into
water containers.)

The Problem of Leaching

Natural rocks, plumbing, tanksevery material that
touches your water leaches (dissolves) into it to some
degree. Is it OK to drink water that has been sitting in
plastic? Is it OK to drink water from a new concrete
tank? These aren't questions with simple answers, especially when you reduce them to practiceyou've got to
contain your water in something, after all.
There is an extensive collection of information on
this topic in our Water Storage Extras,6 including summaries and links to dozens of studies that relate to
leaching and permeation of toxins (as well as disinfection byproducts, water quality standards, and bacterial
regrowth in water systems). At the risk of oversimplifying, here is a summary. Leaching is of greater concern
with:

Settling and Attrition in a

Swimming Hole
One hot day I went with a gaggle of young
children to our local swimming hole. After hours
of play, I gathered a sample from the inlet and
outlet of the pool. A few days later I counted the
number of colonies of general and fecal coliform
bacteria in the plates.
Here's the picture: a 10' (3 m) deep pool carved
from bedrock, about 30,000 gal (110 in') of water.
A wild creek with about 30 gpm (110 Ipm) of
crystal clear water flows through it. The pool is
looking a bit tired after a few hours of frolicking
by several wild children and a couple of adults.
So, which do you think was cleaner: the inlet or
the outlet? (Obviously it's a trick question, or
I wouldn't be asking it like this.) Well, I'll be
darned if the outlet wasn't cleaner. At a loss for
an explanation, I concluded that I'd switched
the labels, and I re-tested.
This time I tested the
inlet, the surface of
the water (where
all the dust and
stuff floats), the
water column 6 "
(15 cm) down, the
outlet, and even
the water column
at the bottom,
braving a cold day
Coliecan plate
to dive down and uncap
and recap the sample bottle.
Same counter-intuitive results: the zvater 6"
down below the outlet was cleanest, followed by
the surface, the bottom, and finally, in last place,
the inlet.
I combed my memory banks for an explanation.
Hmm... I remembered a set of water tests I ran
at Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage in Mexico. When
the rain finally came after a half-year dry season,
they would usually dump the old, stale water and
fill the big cistern with fresh, clean water from
their waterfall. But when I tested the old and the
new water, the old water was cleaner.
I think what is probably going on in our creek
is that these pools, which are so big relative to the
flow that if you emptied them they'd take a day to
fill, had a bigger purifying effect through settling
and attrition than the contaminating effect of all
those (ahem) cute little butts in the water.

*There is some evidence that a bacterial layer in a tank may improve ivater quality, the way the slime layer in a sand filter

does.

materials of greater toxicity

materials which dissolve more readily
longer contact time
higher temperature
softer water (particularly if it is less than 100 ppm total dissolved solids, like rain)
more corrosive water (containing salt, hydrogen sulfide, etc.)
water of extreme pH, especially low pH, acidic water

The hazard of leaching can be reduced in these ways:

Seek a water source that is clean to begin withClean storage isn't going to help
toxic water. Water providers have to publish an EPA-mandated "consumer confidence
report" which describes the system's water quality. If you have your own system, consider doing your own testing. Bottled water companies are actually subject to less regulation. The Natural Resources Defense Council did a survey of bottled waters which
found one particularly egregious offender was private-labeling "spring water" from a
well in an industrial parking lot over a toxic waste dump! 7
Keep your water coolThe colder your water, the less of your plumbing will dissolve
into it. Cold also retards bacterial regrowth. Choosing a light color for your tank and/
or placing it in the shade to lower its temperature is always a good idea.
Minimize contact time and surface areaThe leaching of plumbing materials often
proceeds so slowly that reducing the contact time and surface area can significantly
reduce the amount of undesirable materials leached into the water. Make sure your
storage is plumbed so that water circulates through the whole water column, rather
than leaving big dead zones.
Raise the pH of your water by adding lime.
Use materials of minimum toxicity or solubilityThere is an overview of the toxicity
of specific materials in Table 7, p. 40, followed by details on specific materials.

Water Age
There are water quality problems that can be caused or made worse by water spending a long time in your system. These include:
temperature increase
taste, odor, or color changes
decay of disinfectants
formation of disinfectant byproducts
bacterial regrowth/shielding of pathogens
It is preferable to design your system so that there are no stagnant backwaters where
the water never turns over. In a tank, the inlet should be opposite the outlet. Abandoned
runs of pipe should be capped at the beginning, not the end.
Generally water age is not a problem in well-designed small systems if the input
water is of good quality. The most common exception is rainwater harvesting or other
systems that collect water with a high load of organic matter, traces of bird feces, etc. You
don't want to collect this untreated water in a black tank in full sun and leave it to fester
all summer, then drink it.

How to Test Stored Water

You can tell a lot about the quality of stored water by:
Tasting or smelling itCan reveal problems with over-chlorination, septic conditions,
sulfur, iron, hardness, pH, and some types of leaching from plastic containers.
Holding it up to the light (or looking through it)Can reveal the amount and nature
of suspended solids (turbidity), which, properly illuminated, look like dust swirling in
a shaft of light.

12

The
Precautionary
Principle
When an activity
raises threats of harm
to human health or
the environment,
precautionary measures should be taken
even if some cause and
effect relationships are
not fully established
scientifically.
Wingspread conference proceedings,
1998
Scientific uncertainty + Suspected
harm = Precautionary
action
NGO biotechnology briefing for the
White House, 1999

 Do-it-yourself lab-style testsUnfortunately you can't establish that water is pathogen- or toxic chemical-free by look, smell, or taste. The conventional way to test water
for pathogens is to do a few precise, expensive tests for indicator bacteria such as
general and fecal coliforms, using a certified lab. However, this often does not yield an
accurate picture because it is too expensive to do enough tests this way to see how the
quality changes as the water moves through a system or over time.
In our Water Quality Testing download, 4 1 describe a technique for doing your own
general and fecal coliform bacteria tests using materials which cost less than $2 per test
(this download explains DIY tests for turbidity, flow, dissolved solids, and elevation,
as well). The results aren't very precise, but you can afford to take enough samples to
see how the quality changes over short distances and time spans, all throughout your
system. As natural building expert Ianto Evans says: "Better roughly right than precisely
wrong."
Commercial lab testsTo test for contamination with pesticides and industrial chemicals, there isn't any alternative to sending your water to a lab.8 If you live down current
from agriculture or industry, this isn't a bad idea.

Old-fashioned
drinking water
filter/cooler in a
farmhouse in rural
Cuba. The owners
pour raw water into
the depression in
the porous carved
stone filter. From
there, it drips into
the clay storage
urn. Lowered vents
provide evaporative
cooling.

13

r@ Water
We're going to take an in-depth look at water tanks
in Chapters 3-5, but that doesn't mean tanks are your
onlyor beststorage method. Some methods will
apply in a given situation while others won't. To decide
on a water storage method (or methods), evaluate each
option below for your context:

Some Common Terms

This is the way these terms are used in this book:
Aquifer: A geological formation saturated with
water.
Groundwater: Water from an aquifer.
Tank: A large vessel for storing water, sealed except for controlled inlets, outlets, venting, etc.
Cistern: A tank without an outlet at the bottom.
(Cisterns are also characterized by intermittent
supply, for example, rainwater or runoff.)
Pool: A roofless tank made of any material other
than a membrane or graded earth. (If the water is
held by these, it's a pond.)
Pond: An artificially constructed, open-surface
body of water that is supported structurally by
earth, and filled at least partially by water diverted
into it from elsewhere.
Dam: An impoundment astride a natural watercourse, which fills with water from the watercourse,
possibly supplemented from other sources.

Source direct (no storage)A rarely applicable but

desirable option if you have a clean source higher in
elevation and flow than the water uses.
Store water in soilInexpensive supplemental irrigation storage (not advisable in landslide areas).
Store water in aquifersFree bulk storage safe from
evaporative loss, but only accessible by pump and
subject to contamination and extraction by other
users.
Store water in pondsInexpensive bulk storage
of water, most appropriate where rainfall exceeds
evaporation and the majority of water need is for
non-potable uses.
Store water in tanksMost expensive but most flexibility in location and best protection and control of
the stored water.

We'll consider each of these options in turn. Once you've established which
storage option(s) apply for you, you can skim or skip the sections which apply only to
the other methods. (You can also, of course, store water in miscellaneous containers such as drums or recycled milk jugs. See Emergency Storage, p. 75, and Really
Cheap Storage, p. 50.)

S@ira Direct (No Storage])

If the flow of the water source is equal to or greater than the peak demand,
and if it is clean, reliable, and above the point of use, you don't need artificial
storage. You can use the natural storage in the earth that feeds your spring or
creek.
FIGURE 4 : CREEK DIRECT WATER SYSTEM

PVC line (HOPE would be better)

Garden

sprinklers

For 4 acres (2 ha) garden and orchard

Creek

30+gpm

(120 :prr,)

River

The "creek direct" system of a wilderness community in Northern California: simply a 2" pipe stuck in the creek. Can't get much simpler than that for a piped system. In the rainy season, it supplies a hydroelectric turbine or two. in summer, it still yields
enough flow for all domestic use and several large sprinklers at onceand there's still water left for my son (normally confined to
playing with a desert trickle at home) to go wild with the hose in the garden as long as he likes (photo above right).

14

The town of Stinson Beach, just north of San Francisco, has nearly a thousand people
on a "creek direct" system. Thanks to abundant natural storage relative to its population,
this is one of the California communities least affected by drought.
Source direct is the simplest approach to storage; there's not a lot more to say about
it other than what you can see in the figures below and under Examples / Creek Direct,
p. 85. The latter example features a tiny "demand-side" storage tank for days when the
creek is turbid and to blast air out of the lines after servicing.

Fates of Rain

Store Water in Soil

Storing water in soil isn't going to address anything other than irrigation
needs. But for irrigation, look first to the soil to store water, and only after
this has made its optimal contribution, make up the difference with other,
more elaborate water storage options.
Think like water for a moment. Visualize rain, falling on the earth. Where
does it go?

TranspirationProductively
used by plants.
EvaporationA loss to the
system.
> RunoffA loss to the system.
InfiltrationTo soil or
greywater storage.
DiversionInterception by
humans before one of the other
fates above.

The water from a very short, light rainfall will re-evaporateFrom the
surface, with none of it cycling through plant roots.

: A more sustained rainfall will start to fill the space between soil particlesPlants can absorb this "field moisture" with their root hairs and
pump it out through their leaves.
A sustained, penetrating rain will fill all the space between soil particles to "field
capacity"At which point water will start moving downward. If it goes below root
depth, it will continue on down to the groundwater (covered in the next section).
A variable portion of rainfall will also run off over the surfaceBut that is another
story. In fact, this whole process is another story, which is covered in detail in our forthcoming book Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff Management.3
Our concern for the moment is the water held as a film over soil particles, within root
reach of the surface. While the level of an aquifer rises up and down with the amount
of water in storage, soil moisture makes a thinner or thicker film of moisture over soil
particles. When the space between particles isn't saturated, it's like a sponge that is not
dripping. The water won't flow and can't be drawn out with a pump; it will only come
out via root hairs, or slow diffusion of water as gas to the surface. Water stored in soil
differs from storage in aquifers in several important ways:
TABLE 2 : H o w STORAGE IN SOIL DIFFERS FROM STORAGE IN AQUIFERS

Soil
Water is generally suited for Irrigation only
Water can be extracted by a well or spring No or intermittently
Water can be extracted by plant roots Yes

Aquifers
All purposes
Yes
Only if shallow

Space between soil particles is saturated with water Briefly

Water movement Toward drier soil as a gas
(in both soil and aquifers the flow is or by capillary action,
usually only an inch to a few feet a day) downward, by bulk flow
Water has a distinct level No

Yes
By bulk flow, mostly
lateral, seeking its
level
Yes, visible in well

Water has been purified of nutrients and pathogens by

Not yet
bacteria and roots

Yes (unless natural

purification capacity
is exceeded)

The typical way to take advantage of the ability to store water in the soil in excess of
current plant needs is to infiltrate rain or other excess water into a surface where plants are
growing, with minimal or no runoff. There are a range of measures that can be employed
to accomplish this, all to be covered in Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff Management.

15

Soil can hold on the order of an extra gallon of stored water per cubic foot,"1 between
the wilt point and field capacity (the point at which the leaves of a given plant will wilt for
lack of water, and the water holding capacity above which water starts to flow out of the
soil like drips out the bottom of a saturated sponge). Water in the soil in excess of plants'
current water needs, but less than the field capacity, will sit there until the plants need it.
You can reduce "leakage" (evaporation) out of the surface of the soil by mulching, or by
breaking up the surface with a hoe or plow. This breaks the capillary connection to the
stored water, preventing it from evaporating.
In our tiny quarter-acre lot (1,000 in2), we can absorb 50,000 gal (200 m3) of runoff
diverted from the area above our land in one big storm. The water is filled with bacteria,
the storage leaks out the bottom and evaporates out the top, and only a fraction of this
may end up being accessed by our orchard for useful irrigationbut so what?
Storing water this way is literally dirt-cheap. The modifications to our grey water
system to funnel the water to the soil cost less than $50, or about one-thousandth the
cost of a tank of similar capacity. (The same end can be accomplished with zero materials costnothing more than furrows dug in the earth.) In any case, the captured runoff
serves to flush salts below the root zone. In our orchard, water stored in soil shortens
our irrigation season by two or three weeks on each end, which considerably reduces the
tank size we need. W h a f s more, the water that leaks below root reach ends up stored
in an underground aquifer, from which (since our geology is favorable) we can pump it
back up for use during the dry season.
Conventional management would be to shed all this excess water, then import it from
somewhere else when it is needed. There are rational reasons to shed runoff this way:
Some plants can get root rot if the soil is too waterlogged for too long.
On a steep slope or unstable soil, you may wind up causing your house to slide
down the hill or into quicksand.
Pay close attention to your context, however, and you can reap benefit from this storage with secondary benefits of reduced flooding and improved natural water quality.
In rare instances, soil storage can serve for much more. For example, the waterfall
filling the pool and diversion shown on p. 25 is formed entirely from water held in the
soil sponge of a small forested watershed at the top of it. This isn't an aquiferit drains
rapidly after each rain. It supplies all the water, and seasonal hydropower, for a community of a dozen or so homes. (This system, which includes dozens of tanks of every
description for six months each year of zero water income, is profiled on p. 83 and on our
websitesearch for "Huehuecoyotl.")

An aquifer is an underground reservoir of groundwater. Water in an aquifer saturates

all the space between particles. This saturated zone has a definite level, like an underground lake or river.
You can get water out of an aquifer with a well, or, if you're so lucky, a spring above
your house, an artesian well, or a horizontal well. Water flows out by itself from these
latter two as if they were springs. (See Figure 6, p. 18.)

How Water Gets into and Moves through Aquifers

Because no one ever sees an aquifer, most people have a hard time visualizing what
one looks like and how water flows through it. You, however, will shortly have an aboveaverage understanding of aquifers...
A good example to start with is the aquifer under Maruata, a Mexican village where
I've worked for several years. Maruata is located in a wide river valley, with the bottom
filled with sand (see photo and diagram, next page). When it rains, the rain filters down
through the sand until it hits the bedrock below.
'"Metric: an extra 130 L in each cubic meter of soil.

16

Picture a kids' sandbox, with the

sand slightly sloped, and one side
open. Make rain by putting a sprinkler
on so the sand is getting wet. Now
make a highland spring, by putting
a hose on trickle at the upper edge of
the sand box.
The water will sink into the sand.
It will flow slowly under the surface,
around the particles until it hits the
impermeable floor, at which point it
Looking diagonally across the mouth of the Maruata river valley.
will creep toward the open end.
Underground, the water moves
so much more slowly that it backs up and spreads out. It is more like a barely moving
underground lake than an underground river.
If you were to dig down into the sand, you would find standing water. This is the
aquifer, and you've just made a well!
If the sprinkler (rain) is coming down really hard, water may run over the surface
before it all sinks in. Some of it might carry leaves and debris from the surface into the
well, contaminating the groundwater. This happens in Maruata during the monsoon.
The floor and three sides of the sandbox are waterproof, like the bedrock surrounding
Maruata's aquifer, while the down slope side is an open sand bank. Maruata's groundwater/ underground river seeps out through an underwater sand bank into the ocean at
the mouth of the valley. If I burrow my feet down into the sand while bodysurfing, I can
feel the cooler, fresh, underground river water flowing out of the sand into the saltwater.
If I dig a big hole in the wet sand during a falling tide and test the water at the bottom of
the hole, it will be mostly fresh. If the flow of the underground river is low, and I dig during a rising tide, the water in the hole will be ocean water sloshing up into the aquifer.
If your sandbox sprinkler is on long enough, the groundwater level will rise until it
reaches the surface, then run over it. In Maruata, a river runs over the surface much of
the year.
Suppose you were to put a sump pump in your sandbox well and turn it on. The
water level would drop rapidly, and water would start flowing toward the pump from
FIGURE 5 : SIDE VIEW OF IMPACTS TO AQUIFER IN RIVER VALLEY

Defecation field
Very little aquifer
'contamination

Sea level
Earth toilet
Very little aquifer

Composting
toilet
No aquifer
contamination
Toilet with
septic tank
Much aquifer
contamination

Dry toilet
Very little aquifer
contamination
(none if urine is
used as
fertilizer)

Sealed tube wel'

Always drinkable
properly
sited
constructed

Aquifer level
during heavy rains. (A fas1
lowing underground river.)
Plant roots
Absorb
nitrogen
and dean the
water
Springs

(slightly

permeable)

\-~3001

I ISO'
Can channel
contamination

Sand
(permeable)

Bedrock
(impermeable)

Plume of contamination
from
leachfield

field. The underground river will

reverse flow, and the well will suck in
contamination
from all sides.

17

surface
into the

During severe droughts the level of the aquifer is almost

flat and without flow, like a lake, almost at the level of
the sea. If it is over-pumped, the flow can reverse, and
contaminate
the wells near the sea with
saltwater.

aquifer

all directions, including reverse flow from the ocean toward the well.
After a few minutes, the "river" on the surface would diminish, then go
Aquifer terms
dry near the well, then along its whole length. If there were an ocean at
Perched aquifer: An aquifer
the mouth of your sandbox, within a short time you'd have exhausted
"perched" atop a confining layer, with
the freshwater and you'd be sucking saltwater into your well.
air
in the soil space below it.
If you spray insecticide over the surface, the sprinkler will carry it

Artesian
well (or spring): A well or
down into the sandbox aquifer, and within minutes it will be coming
spring pressurized by an aquifer conout of your well. Ditto if you were to inject sewage below the purifyfined above and below by impermeable
ing reach of plant roots. Figure 5 shows how various activities on the
layers.
surface impact Maruata's aquifer. (For more on how application depth
Gravity spring: A spring which
and location impacts treatment, see our other publications. 9 )
drains directly from saturated soil
Aquifers get more complicated when you add impermeable (or
space above it, with no confining layer
"confining") layers (see Figure 6). In this case, the water that seeps into
that could contain pressure were one to
the ground where you live may not end up in the groundwater directly
plug
the spring.
below you. In fact, the surface that recharges your groundwater may be
Fissured aquifer: Groundwater fora long distance away, and may not correspond to the surface watershed
mation with bulk flow of water through
at all. If your geology contains an impermeable layer, you may have a
cracks in bedrock.
"perched" aquifer on top of it.
When an aquifer is sandwiched between confining layers both
above and below, it can be artesian. An artesian well is pressurized. If
you drill through a confining layer into a subartesian aquifer, the water will rise partway
up the shaft by itself. In an artesian well, the aquifer is under enough pressure to rise up
the shaft all the way and flow out the surface.

FIGURE 6 : AQUIFER, SPRING, AND W E L L TYPES

Catchment

Catchment area
artesian
spring

for

area for perched

Sand

aquifer

Subartesian

well

Creek bed
(gaining)

Artesian well

Water line

Gravity
spring

Catchment

for unconfined

Catchment

aquifer
Artesian

Unconfmed

Artesian
spring

for fissured

aquifer

Fissured

aquifer

spring

aquifer

Creek bed
(losing)

Underground
spring

18

To

i n e r t

Aquifer Alarm

a so the amount of water in your aqutfer-

Aquifers redurge
: ' S S ^ S ^ . - H o n coefficient (the per increase the
-centage of rain which soaks in)
detain water in infiltration basins
infiltrate water through creek beds and riverbeds

ZTaZTre
.

: inject water into wells

Not to belabor the obvious, but conserving water is
the cheapest, simplest, and lowest-impact way to relieve a
water shortage, above or below ground.
If you have excess water, you can get it into storage
in the ground using the strategies above. (See Runoff
Harvesting Ponds, p. 21, for some info, and Rainwater
Harvesting and Runoff Management3 for much more on this
topic.)

Conjunctive Use
"Conjunctive use" is a fancy name for adding to
groundwater storage when you've got more water than
you need (by surface infiltration or injection well), then
taking it out when you need it. This can mean adding
water during the wet season for use in the dry season, or
adding water during wet decades for use during drought
decades.
Conjunctive use is excellent, so long as it doesn't
degenerate into the next practice.

Overdrawing, Mining Fossil

Groundwater

'required
,

slowly, usually at rates of 01

^ ' T S u m ^ e n t

to avoid

. r^r\ni lUn irrionht

by the year 2020.

According to Sandra Postel, director of the Global
Water Policy Project in Amherst,
Massachusetts,
and a senior fellow at the WorldWatch Institute,
the world's farmers are racking up an annual water
deficit of some 160 billion cubic meters-the
amount
used to produce nearly 10% of the world's grain.
"Some 40% of the world's food comes from irrigated
cropland," said Postel, "and we're betting on that
share to increase to feed a growing population." But
the productivity of irrigation is in jeopardy from the
overpumping of groundwater, the growing diversion
of irrigation water to cities, and the buildup of salts in
the soil.
"Our civilization is not the first to be faced with the
challenge of sustaining its irrigation base. A key lesson from history is that most irrigation-based
civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium A.D., the
question is: Will ours be any different?"

Overdrafting groundwater is just like overdrafting your checking accounttaking it

out faster than it is replenished. The result is water bankruptcy. After years or decades of
excess, at some point you reach the bottom. Or, you drill so deep the water is unusably
hot, nasty, and salty from water-rock interactions at depthalmost as if the drill were
getting too close to Hell.
Much of the world's accessible groundwater is in a state of overdraft. Overdrafting
can cause permanent damage to the aquifer, subsidence of land, sinkholes, and saltwater
intrusion from the ocean. With overdrafting, the best-case scenario is that you are stuck
using an amount of water that corresponds to natural recharge, as you should have done
in the first place. The difference is that you may be paying several times more to pump it
from much farther down, possibly hundreds of feet farther down. Worse, you won't have
that nice cushion of ten, a hundred, or a thousand years' past recharge in the bank for
conjunctive use.
The worst-case scenario is that you were mining fossil groundwater. Fossil groundwater infiltrated into the earth in the distant past, when the climate and surface conditions
were different, like when the Sahara was a dinosaur-filled swamp. With current conditions on the surface, it may not recharge even in a million years.
When mining nonrenewable fossil groundwateras with extreme overdraftnatural
recharge may be so much less than what users have gotten used to consuming that they
may have to abandon the majority of their farmland, housing, or industry to adjust to the
new water budget, even with state-of-the-art water efficiency.

19

overdraft

Protecting Groundwater Quality

While tanks can be managed individually, the quality and quantity of water in

aquifers depend on the wider community. Water stored in aquifers can be threatened
by toxins from underground gasoline storage tanks, dry cleaners, agricultural poisons,
nitratesall the dreck of modern life which seeps down through the soil.
The best defense, of course, is to avoid such contamination in the first place.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), this requires a complete rethinking of almost every aspect
of our material life. While the soil is a formidable treatment engine for biological pathogens and nutrients, it is relatively transparent to artificial toxins. Toxic contamination of
groundwater is increasingly widespread. Would you drink out of a parking lot gutter?
If it drains into your groundwater, you are doing so already. The only reason the water
isn't
more gross is that modern toxins introduced decades ago are just now reaching the
aquifers.
It doesn't seem that any amount of effort can truly rehabilitate an aquifer that has
been contaminated by the nastier substances. Fortunately, nitrate, which is the most common groundwater contaminant, is relatively easy to flush out if the source is removed.
Saltwater intrusion is another class of threat to avoid. It is caused by overpumping, so
that the groundwater level drops below that of the ocean. The remedy: pump less.
gu

A pond is an artificially
constructed,
open-surface
body of water that is supported
structurally by earth, and
filled by runoff, underlying
springs, and/or water diverted
into it from elsewhere. Ponds
are generally large in capacity
relative to the flow of water
that maintains them.
Ponds or aquifers
which is better for bulk
storage of excess water?
Imagine setting an opentopped drum in your
yard. Will it eventually
fill to overflowing? If so,
your climate has more
rain than wind and sun.
A climatologist would say
your precipitation exceeds
evapotranspiration. If this
institute for Solar Living, Hopland, Northern California.
Fond a t the
is the case, then ponds are
an appropriate choice for water storage. If, on the other hand, the drum would never fill,
then it is better to store water underground where it is protected from evaporation (see
Evaporation, p. 23, for figures).
Ponds offer a lot of water storage for a low price. On the downside, they are wide
open to contamination, they lose quite a lot of water to evaporation, and may leak out
the bottom as wellespecially new, unlined ponds. Water stored in ponds is typically of
lower quality than water stored in a tank and not suited for drinking unless treated.
What's the difference between ponds and dams? A dam is an impoundment astride a
year-round watercourse, whereas a pond is located where it intercepts only runoff, or is
totally separated from surface water flowsits own little watershed.

20

Dams, particularly large ones, have serious environmental consequences. Even a

small dam can create a barrier that isolates populations of fish and interrupts migrations
of salmon or steelhead trout. A large reservoir of slack water behind a dam changes the
temperature and sediment flow of a stream, with adverse consequences. Pooled water
behind a dam is rapidly lost to evaporation. Since all dams fill to the rim with sediment
within a few decades to at most several centuries, they fail any test of sustainability.
We've turned the corner on dams in the US: the rate of dam removal now exceeds the
rate of new dam construction. If you want to extract water or power from a stream or
river, use a diversion, rather than a dam.
Properly conceived ponds, on the other hand, offer the prospect of positive environmental as well as human benefits, including:
water storage, primarily for irrigation, livestock watering, and fire safety
conversion of runoff to groundwater recharge or surface water that is available in
dry times
place to swim, ice-skate, fish, and view wildlife
aquaculture, generally of fish
aesthetic beauty
microclimate modification (reflect low winter sun, a place to cool off in summer)
wildlife habitat for birds, aquatic creatures, and plants
drinking water source and hunting area for bigger creatures
Constructing a pond is a major undertaking. Start with visits to nearby ponds and
questions to their owners. In many areas, government agencies such as your county's
Soil and Water Conservation District, the US Department of Agriculture Natural
Resource Conservation Service, or University Extension will help you design your pond
for free.10
It is safest to retain the services of someone who knows what they are doing, with a
good local track record, to help situate, design, and build the pond. There is an increasing interest in pond safety. Many states are conducting routine checks of ponds and
dams, and condemning those deemed unsafe. Construct your pond well, and you'll
avoid an expensive repair or liability from downstream neighbors.
The design of the pond depends on its use. Before moving earth, get clear on why
you want a pond and what you'll use it for. The Ontario, Canada, Land Owner Resource
Center cautions against over-ambition: "Multi-purpose ponds seldom fulfill all of their
intended uses." 11
Once you know the size of the pond and where it will be located, the amount of earthwork and the materials costs can be estimated.

Types of Man-Made Ponds and Where to Put Them

Man-made ponds have several major design variables. These yield three main classes of
ponds, which we'll call Storage Ponds, Living Ponds, and Runoff Harvesting Ponds (see
Table 3, next page).
Storage PondsEssentially open, earth-supported tanks. These should be situated
well out of flood plains, and, for highest water quality, should have a raised rim the
whole way around them so that little or no uncontrolled runoff enters them.
Living PondsMay look just like natural ponds. They should be located out of flood
plains. Sometimes they have provision for routing runoff into them or diverting it at
will.
Runoff Harvesting PondsSeasonal ponds that collect runoff that would otherwise
be lost and allow it to infiltrate slowly into the soillike a big, slow-draining infiltration basin. At their simplest, they are formed by making low dams across runoff
courses. This type of pond is covered in more detail in our forthcoming book Rainwater
Harvesting and Runoff Management.3

21

TABLE 3 : POND CHARACTERISTICS

Storage Ponds
Characteristics
Lining

Living Ponds

Runoff Harvesting Ponds

Open, earth-supported tanks

May look just like natural ponds

Seasonal pools of runoff

essentially big rain puddles

Usually EPDM rubber, sometimes

concrete

Imported or native clay soil, or a liner

covered with sand or gravel

Native soil

Almost devoid of life, maybe a

Plants and animals few mosquito fish and visiting
birds
Level fluctuation Full to zero

Whatever can grow or live

All the complexity of natural ponds, with
an intricate web of plant, animal, and insect with alternating wet and dry
conditions
associations
Generally less than 2'

Full to zero

Deep enough to make cool refuge for fish,

not so deep the bottom is oxygen-starved

Flexible, but generally shallow

Highto maintain ecological balance;

weeding, stocking with fish, etc.

Minimalmonitor during big

rain events

Low, often turbid, and full of free-floating

algae

Low, often turbid, and full of

free-floating algae, tannins

Filled from an external source and/or

underlying springs. Runoff captured,
excluded, or divertable

Filled entirely with captured

runoff

High

Low

Water storage Whole volume

Top 2' only

Whole volumeif any

Groundwater
No
recharge

Maybe

Yes

Yes

Maybe, if full long enough

Yes, but pier or dive platform may be desirable to avoid mucky bottom

Seasonally, but often shallow

and mucky

Considerable

Considerable

Yes

If full long enough. Can plant

land crops as water recedes

Pier, diving platform

Laundry washboard

Depth Deeper = less loss to evaporation

Management and
Minimallike a tank
maintenance
Water quality Nearly drinkable
Water source

Filled from an external source.

Runoff is generally excluded

Cost _High
Uses

Fishing Maybe
Yes, but aesthetics are often lackSwimming
ing
Wildlife benefit Minimal
Aquaculture Maybe
Typical accessories Chain link fence

C o n s t r u c t i o n t e c h n i q u e s g o h a n d - i n - h a n d w i t h p o n d location:
E x c a v a t i o n p o n d s M a d e b y d i g g i n g in flat l a n d a n d piling the e a r t h into levees
a r o u n d the hole. In areas w i t h h i g h g r o u n d w a t e r , the h o l e m a y fill w i t h w a t e r b y itself,
in w h i c h case an i m p e r m e a b l e b o t t o m is n o t required.
E m b a n k m e n t p o n d s F o r m e d b y m a k i n g a levee b e t w e e n t w o hillsides. D o n ' t b u i l d
this k i n d of p o n d astride a p e r m a n e n t w a t e r c o u r s e or l a r g e - v o l u m e runoff channel, as
the likelihood of ecological d a m a g e a n d failure is too h i g h .
C o m b i n a t i o n p o n d s M a d e b y a c o m b i n a t i o n of the a b o v e t w o techniques, i.e., cut
a n d fill.
Former
FIGURE 7 : POND CONSTRUCTION
CLASSESEXCAVATED,
EMBANKMENT, AND COMBINATION

Cut

22

grade

Flat sites are generally considered easiest for pond construction. However, natural folds in the land can "hold" a pond in a
pleasing way, and possibly reduce the amount of costly re-arranging of soil. The pond needs to be built where there is access for
heavy machinery.
Native soil that holds water is clearly a positive site attribute
for a pond. Fissured bedrock may drain a pond. Maintaining a
pond in a swampy area may be expensive and problematic.
Clearly, it is advantageous to situate your pond such that it can
fill by gravity from the water source. Vegetation around the pond
site will reduce erosion and improve water quality. Convenient
access and privacy are other considerations.
A concrete-lined storage pond excavated into the
spine of a ridge above an avocado orchard, it is
filled by water pumped up from a creek diversion
through a few hundred feet of 4 " pipe.

Pond Water Sources

The source requirements vary by the pond type:
Storage pondsRequire a water source of quality commensurate with the end use, just like a tank, but with a bit of extra
quantity to compensate for evaporation.
Living pondsRequire water of a quality that will support
aquatic life, in a quantity that can maintain the pond level constant year round, despite evaporation, leakage out the bottom,
and any extraction of water for other uses. Living ponds are
often maintained by a diversion from a natural surface watercourse, with provision for blocking the entry of storm water and
sediment.
Runoff harvesting pondsAt their simplest are formed by
making low levees across runoff courses. Quality generally isn't
an issue. The quantity shouldn't blow out the dam.
You don't want too much water. Flooding causes problems in
sport fishing ponds, in particular. It is good to be able to control
the entry of water, sediment, and nuisance fish into the pond with
a screen and/or valves.
For aquaculture, the water should be tested. Runoff can contain
agricultural chemicals; groundwater can contain nitrate or carbon dioxide. Groundwater from springs or runoff from naturally
forested areas are superior water sources.
In areas where ponds are common, you can probably find a
locally known formula for how much area of watershed it takes
to keep a pond of a given volume full. For example, in Virginia, it
takes about 3 acres of watershed to maintain an acre-foot of pond
volume, more if the watershed is forested with sandy soil, less if it
is pasture or clay soil.'" 12

Evaporation
How much water will evaporate? That depends on the surface
area, heat, humidity, and wind. These values can often be found
for a nearby weather station, as well as direct evaporation figures.
Evaporation values for a dry month vary from a few inches in
temperate climates to half a dozen in full desert conditions. 13 For
even a modest pond, the amount of evaporative water loss is
considerable. For example, a quarter-acre pond evaporates about
4" of water in an average dry month. That equals a water loss of
26,000 gallons.
'"Metric: In Virginia, it takes 12,000 m2 to maintain 1,200 m' of pond volume.

23

Runoff-harvesting storage pond for a village in

Mexico. This EPDM-lined pond is filled through a
mile (1.5 km) of 2.5" HOPE line from a seasonal
creek. It fills for about four months and is used
primarily for laundry during the long dry season.

Average evaporation from the 3,000 acre surface of Lake Cachuma, a reservoir above
Santa Barbara, California, exceeds 10,000 gpm, for every minute of the yeara powerful reminder that in arid zones it is preferable to store water underground. (See Water
Storage Extras 6 to calculate evaporation loss for your pond.)

Pond Size
To save on construction costs, maintenance effort, and environmental impacts, the
pond should be no bigger than necessary for your intended use. Smaller ponds have
fewer problems with wind wave erosion on the banks. Bigger ponds store more water at
lower unit cost.
Storage pondsCan be sized like tanks (see p. 32).
Living pondsShould be no bigger than the water source can comfortably support.
For sport fishing, ponds should be 1 acre or bigger (4,000 m2), to provide sufficient
cover and food for a population of fish that can't easily be depleted.
Runoff harvesting pondsUsually sized to the topography and for ease of construction. The upper size limit is the size at which they can contain all the runoff they are
likely to encounter.

Pond Depth
Ideal pond depth is a function of the intended use and the weather conditions:
For water storageDeeper is better. Ponds should be at least 12 feet (3.5 rn) deep, up to
a maximum of about 20' (6 m).
For living pondsDepth should be between 8' and 15' (2.5-4.5 m) in 25% of their
basin. The colder the climate, the deeper the pond, up to the maximum of about 15' (4.5
m). Beyond this depth, there may be a deep zone without oxygen, which can mix with
the upper layers and kill fish if the pond "turns over," i.e., the water layers swap position due to a change in relative temperature.
Runoff harvesting pondsTypically shallow: a few to 5' or 6' deep (0.75-2 m). If they
are in watercourses, the risk of catastrophic failure with higher walls is too great.

Pond Shape
While round is the most efficient pond shape, a natural shape is most pleasing. A
kidney shape is a popular compromise. Deep water along the shore discourages weeds.
The inside walls of the pond should slope about 1:2, the outside of the walls 1:2 or 1:3.

Pond Inlets and Outlets

The pond should have:
A permanent drainCapable of draining the pond in five days or less.
A controllable inletTo exclude floodwaters, sediment, and unwanted fish.
A fence to exclude livestockThey'll make a mess of the water. Instead, provide a
watering trough supplied by the pond outside the fence.
A well-armored overflowGenerously sized so that overflow goes through it rather
than over the unprotected face of the levee. Overflows are often cut into undisturbed
native soil beyond the sides of the levee. If the overflow goes over the fill soil of the
levee, it should be well-armored against erosion. Ponds placed in natural runoff courses must be designed to withstand floodwaters.

Pond Liners
Ponds may be lined with native clay soil, sandy soil sealed with bentonite clay, or a
welded liner of EPDM at least 0.08" (2 mm) thick. Rubber liners should be covered with
at least 6" (15 an) of sand or fine soil to protect them from punctures (although water
storage ponds which are not used for any other purpose often have just the naked liner).
'"Metric: Evaporation ranges from 5-20 cm/month. A 1,000 in3 pond evaporates about 10 cm or 100 m3 i.11 an average month. 1,200 ha Lake Cachuma evaporates 38 in3 a minute!

24

OVERFLOW OF RUNOFF DIVERSION AND STORAGE POOL HUEHUECOYOTL ECOVILLAGE

Waterfall

Tongue-shaped overflow on an
open, 12,000 gal (44 m-) runoff
diversion dam. The smooth
curves
make it more self-cleaning of leaves
when flow is a trickle, keeping most
floating debris out of the
system.
The wide opening increases
the
capacity, enabling the overflow to
be placed higher and getting a few
extra inches of capacity out of the
dam. It replaced a 4" pipe, which
repeatedly. At peak flow,
the water runs over several feet (2
m) of the top of the dam wall.

Filter, diversion to
much more
storage
downstream

The diversion dam is made of mortared stone, the preferred

material
for a diversion in a
watercourse.
This pool has zero wildlife cost: this
watercourse
is bone dry six months
a year. The pool extends the availability of surface water for wildlife
a month or two.

Levee Construction
The levee (wall) contains the pond water. When building a levee, as with pond construction in general, you should retain the services of an expert.
We caution on environmental grounds against damming a year-round watercourse.
These type of ponds often fail structurallyanother reason to make "excavation" ponds
instead, where soil is removed and piled up to make levees outside of a watercourse. It is
not advisable to make a levee higher than 20' (6 in).
Once you know the size of the pond and where it is going, the amount of earthwork
and the materials costs can be estimated.
The site must be cleared of vegetation and topsoil, and the excavation marked with
stakes.
The joint between the levee and the native soil is a weak spot, which should be
armored against leakage with a clay core (see Figure 8, next page).
After filling the core trench with clay, the drain line (with anti-seep collars) can be
installed.
The levee is constructed in thin lifts of well-compacted clay soil, and needs to be wide
enough at the top that creatures such as muskrats can't bore extra outlets through it.
The spillway is where floodwaters that exceed the capacity of the overflow can escape. It is the most likely point of failure on a pond. It should be sized generously, and if
possible be situated in undisturbed soil to the side of the levee, instead of pouring down
the face of it. In the latter case, armor it against erosion.
The Virginia Extension 12 uses this formula to size spillways: Add 15' to half of the
watershed area in acres. For example, a 50 acre watershed should have 40' of spillway,
200 acres 115'. This should result in overflows less than a foot high, which will reduce the
loss of sport fish and reduce the forces on the spillway."1
The sides of the levee can be armored with rock riprap against wave action.
"Metric: Multiply watershed area in hectares by 3.7 and add 4.6 m to get spilhvay width.

25

FIGURE 8 : LEVEE CROSS SECTION

Low berm
Trash rack

Freeboard

Slope

1-2%
Outer face
Slope 1:2 or 1:3

2-4'

Depth
8-15'

Former

Drain line

grade

Anti-seep
Concrete

collars

Wildlife and Ponds

A pond will always attract wildlife. If you want to attract more critters, or specific
species, you can attract them with habitat and a variety of fruit-bearing plants. A shallower, irregular shoreline with varied cover and open exposures will attract more creatures, as will nesting boxes.

Sport Fish in Ponds

Water characteristics must be right for a particular species of fish to thrive:13
Water temperatureIs critical. Cold water fish, such as trout, require surface water
temperatures of 60-70F (15-20C). Cool water fish such as smallmouth bass, pike, and
rock bass can tolerate temperatures of 70-80F (20-26C). If you expect higher temperatures, stock with warm water fish such as catfish, bluegill, and largemouth bass, which
can tolerate temperatures of 90F (32C).
The pHShould be between 5 and 10. To raise pH, powdered lime can be added.
Dissolved oxygenCrucial for fish. Most of the oxygen in ponds comes from photosynthesis by water plants. There should be enough water plants to generate oxygen
during the day, but not so much rotting, matted algae and root tangles that the oxygen
is consumed overnight. Oxygen levels of 5-6 ppm are required for fish to thrive.
Water clarityHelps sport fish. A clear pond will support significantly more of them
than a muddy pond.
Livestock cause all kinds of water quality problems and should be fenced out of sport
fishing ponds.

26

Construction of a 100'
(30 m) diameter embankment pond in the
Cuyama Valley, California. It is filled by gravity with water from a
creek diversion, through
a mile of 2" pipe, it is
used for swimming and
emergency
storage.

Pond Maintenance
Levees must be protected from the tunneling and digging of crayfish, muskrats,
beavers, and nuisance fish. Aquatic weeds may need to be controlledthis can often be
accomplished by lowering the water level and removing the weakened or killed plants.
The pond may periodically need to be dredged.
Any gullies that form in the levees must be filled. Woody plants on the levee must be
controlled by mowing, as their roots can create leaks in the levee, and attract burrowing
animals that make more leaks.

Store Water i i O p t m Tanks, Swimming Pools

Rather than roof and screen their water storage, some people prefer their cisterns au
naturel. The big advantages to this approach are that you avoid the cost of a roof, and...
you can swim in it!
Toss in some Gambusia (mosquito fish) to eat the mosquito larvae (but keep them out
of natural waters). Either live with the algae or put some vascular plants in the system to
pump the nutrients out of solution (they out-compete algae for nutrients). If you've got
flow, you can use it to create a "skimmer" effect to clean off leaves and dust.
Natural pools, which are filtered and purified biologically instead of with chlorine,
are possible but beyond the scope of this book, as they're not primarily for water storage.15 If you want to be able to dunk without all these complications, you can put a
removable lid on a small water tank. I've done this with a 900 gal redwood tank, and it
worked great (photo, inside back cover). Aboveground swimming pools are the cheapest, funkiest storage going. Not a longterm solution, but you can't beat the cost. (See
Really Cheap Storage, p. 50.)
It is an intriguing design challenge to create a more or less standard concrete swimming pool with functional cover, filtration, and skimming, to be usable both for storage
and swimmingall at widely varying water levels. It appears that a level change of
perhaps 14" (35 cm) is possible within these constraints. The idea is that the pool can be
topped off with rainwater during the rainy season, then the level allowed to fall as water
evaporates during the dry season so water doesn't have to be added to the pool. At a
minimum, the pool should have built-in steps, and be designed so it is not a drowning or
falling hazard.
Unlike a regular swimming pool, a "pebble tech" pool (with exposed aggregate on
the inside) won't crack if left dry. (If you figure out more about howor how notto do
this, please let me know.)
Sft m

W a t e r

i& T a n k s

Tanks are the most common way to store water. A well-designed tank offers nearly
complete control of storage conditions, including:

security against leakage

protection from mosquitoes and vermin
shade so algae will not grow
minimal or no evaporation
valve-controlled inlets and outlets

We'll now spend the next three chapters looking at water tanks in detail.

27

As we zoom in to focus on the design of tanks, and then plumbing details, remember
to look up once in a while at the global view of your system and its context (Chapter 1).
In this chapter, we'll be looking at:

an overview of tank components

situating water tanks
sizing water tanks
tank shape
tank materials
tank footings and floors
tank roofs
tank costs
regulatory requirements
hazards of stored water
water tanks for special applications

Most tanks will have:

an inlet
an outlet
service access
a drain
ah overflow mechanism
critter-proofing

: air venting
provision for sunscreen
We'll look at these components in detail in Chapter 4. Water tanks also can have a
host of optional features, which we explore in Chapter 5.
All these valves, fittings, and doodads together add up to quite a list. When I design
a water system, I list every significant component in a table. For each component, the
table describes:

function in the system

generic name
size
material
states in different system modes (dry season, wet season, fire emergency supply
interruption, and maintenance)
how to replace it and what to replace it with when it fails

For example:
Component

Type

Size

Material

State in system modes

Replace with

Tank drain
valve

Ball
valve

2"

Brass

Open for tank cleaning after tank is

drained as far as possible through outlet.

On onset of leaking, remove reduction

and replace with 3" brass ball valve.

It's better to get a handle on the system's complexity and to work out design issues on
paperrather than with a saw or jackhammer. You can see more of this table on p. 84.

The location of your water tank will largely determine:

28


: which parts of your land can be supplied
with tank water by gravity
the amount of pressure at every point in
the system
the length and cost of pipe runs, control
wire runs, and line-of-sight for radio links

: how visually obtrusive your tank will be

the vulnerability of the tank and pipes to
hazards such as falling trees, rocks, and
landslides
the size of tank it is feasible to build
> ease of construction and service access

McMansion in California
with water tanks foolishly positioned
below
all uses. Water security
would be far better with
the tanks hidden in the
middle of the house
compound, at floor level
or a bit higher.

To situate a water tank, you need to consider:

elevation
stability of soil and slope
aesthetics, sacred spots
security

Elevation
If you have a hill, put the tank at an elevation on it that yields adequate pressure.
In places where there is no hill handy, you can:
make a water tower (to artificially increase the elevation)
use a small pressure tank (to pressurize water as it is neededand have no water
when the power goes out)
use a huge pressure tank (to store pressurized water at low elevation)
put a tank on your roof (and live with low pressure, like most people worldwide)
Pressurized from roof height, your appliances will barely work. With your tank the
equivalent of ten stories above you, your washing machine, reverse osmosis water purifier, and demand water heater will start to work. With your storage 23 stories up, your
fire hose will work optimally. With a tank higher than 23 stories, things will start to blow
up.
The maximum advisable pressure for conventional plumbing is 100 psi.* You can
always install a regulator to lower the pressure to whatever value you want.
If the water can
make it into your
tank by gravity flow,
the only reason to
limit its elevation
is to have a shorter
pipe run from storage to use, which can
improve water security and lower cost.
For hydroelectric power, there is no maximum pressurethe more the better, period. However, most hydroelectric systems should be plumbed directly to the source,
with no tank (except possibly a settling tank) in the line. If you are so lucky as to have a
hydroelectric source high, high above your home, you can put the hydroelectric generator before your tank, so that you extract the extra energy before storing the water well
above your home. If the flow is sufficient and the pressure is not, an option is to have the
hydroelectric outlet be the headwaters of a fountain just below your home.

'Each 2.3' of elevation adds 1 psi of pressure <each meter of elevation adds 10 kPa). Thus, 230' of elevation
difference produces the maximum recommended pressure of 100 psi (70 m yioduces the max of 700 kPa).

29

Classic steel
water
tower in California's
Central Valley.

Every home
pressurized
from a 260 gal
(1 m) rooftop
storage
tank, in Manzanillo,
Mexico. These provide
water security, as the
community
system
may only be on an hour
a day.

A huge
pressure
tank for
a water
system
that
serves
about
a hundred homes. This installation is unusual in that all
the storage is at the very lowest point of the system. The
highest home served by the system is about 100' (30m)
higher, and there is a perfect hill that's a 100' higher than
that across the street. I guess they put the storage at
the bottom because the water company doesn't own land
anywhere besides where the well is. In case of a power outage, the pressure contained in the tank will push several
thousand gallons of water into the distribution
system
before it runs out.

What is the minimum elevation for your water

tank? In terms of resource conservation, the lower
the pressure the better. Outside of industrialized nations, very low water pressure is the norm; it works
fine. If the only thing you need lots of pressure for is
fire safety (possibly a legal requirement), it may be
economical to install a booster pump or a separate,
higher tank just for firefighting. The higher you have
to pump water to your tank, the higher your lifetime
electric bill and environmental impact will be.
Table 4 (below) shows the minimum and maximum pressures for several applications:
Tubs and kitchen sinks need flow, not pressure. If
your pressure is very low, you can use larger-diameter
pipe to get acceptable flow. (Figure 31, p. 87, shows
a kitchen sink with almost zero pressure and lots of
flow.)

TABLE 4 : W A T E R PRESSURES FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

Pressure psi/ kPa

Application

Min

Optimum

Max

Fire hose

40/276

100/ 689

100/ 689

Excessive pressure can burst the hose

Drip irrigation

15/203

25/172

30/ 207

Excessive pressure can burst the couplings

More=better

None

Hydroelectric

Comment

The more the better

5/34

50/ 345

100/689

With a special showerhead you can use as little as an inch

of pressure. Some people like the feeling of high pressure

10-15/
69-70.3

50/ 345

100/ 689

Pressure is needed to operate the inlet valves

1/7

Non-critical

100/ 689-

At very low pressure refill time is long

Tub

0.5/3

Non-critical

100/ 689

R/O filter-standard

60/414

80/552

100/689

R/O filter-high flow

30/ 207

40/ 276

100/ 689,

Shower
Washing machine,
dishwasher
Toilet

Kitchen sink

0.5/3

Use high flow filter regardlessit lasts longer

100/689

For conversion factors between height and pressure, see Appendix A: Measurements and Conversions, p. 90.

Elevated Water Storage

and Structural Safety
One of the major consequences of
deciding to locate water storage in a
tower or on the ropfis that it places
a severe constraint on the amount of
water that you can feasibly store.
A plastic tank which two people
could roll onto a roof, empty, can hold
enough weight of water to flatten the
house. You will want to have any
water tower or rooftop water storage
engineered.

Engineer your raised tank well and it won't suffer the

of this earthquake-destroyed
tank tower in Iran.

30

fate

Stability of Soil and Slope

You don't want your tank to sink into the ground, or slide down the hill. The load
per unit of area from water tanks is actually quite low.* A person walking can easily place
much higher point loads on the soil. On the other hand, no one has feet as big as a water
tank. I f s the aggregate load from a water tankall that area being pushed on at the same
timethat can push your building pad down into the gully.
However, undisturbed native soil is sufficiently strong to support even large tanks.
In the case of a tank on a slope, where you don't have a natural flat spot, put the tank on
cut (newly exposed, undisturbed soil), rather than fill (freshly dumped, loose soil). For a
really large tank or any tank on fill, it's a good idea to consult an engineer. (See also Tank
Footings and Floors, p. 48.)

Aesthetics, Sacred Spots

Water tanks can be big, and although they can be beautiful, they are more often ugly.
When locating a water tank, either:
put it where it doesn't matter
conceal it well
make it beautiful
Some places are so special that they just shouldn't be built on at all. This is often true
of hilltops. Of course, the same topography that gives you a sunset view of all creation is
also advantageous for cell phone and TV transmitters, and (to only a slightly lesser degree) water tanks. Unlike transmitters, however, you may be able to move the water tank
down from the hilltop a bit to leave the silhouette unchanged, without compromising the
functionality. You may even lower your pumping bill.
If you do make a tank on the tiptop of a hill, bury it part or all of the way, make it
beautiful, ring it with trees, and/or make it easy to get on top of to hang out and admire
the view.

Security
Ideally, you want your tank downstream from whatever hazards and weak links lie
between you and your water source. Rivers that flood, gullies that wash out, landslides,
falling trees, and rolling bouldersit's best if as few of these hazards as possible are
between you and your tank.

Buried Storage
Burying your water tank has significant advantages over surface storage:

less obtrusive
cooler
totally sunscreened
more secure against accidental drainage
considerable frost protection

...and some real disadvantages:

except on a steep hill, you can't install a gravity drain, so the tank is difficult to
clean
usually requires a pump to get the water out
design is more structurally challenging
limits choice of materials to those that don't corrode
can be a safety hazard
water from the surface or surrounding soil can leak in and contaminate the tank
inspection, repair, and replacement are more challenging
*An 8' deep tank might press on the earth 4 psi (28 kPa).

31

Bad
Location
Some folks a few
canyons over from
us built a big
(100,000 gal/380
m3) ferrocement
tank on a steep,
unstable slope.
The whole thing
slid several feet
down the hill, and
cracked open.

In my opinion, the disadvantages of buried tanks outweigh the

advantages for most applications other than septic tanks. If stored
underground, water from a source higher than the use point often
winds up having to be pumpedto a use point downhill from the
source. Pumping water downhill is surprisingly commonone of
my pet design peeves.
Tanks designed for aboveground use generally shouldn't be buried. They may collapse under pressure from the surrounding soil
after a while. While all tanks are designed to resist outward water
pressure when full, tanks for burial need special shape and construction to resist inward pressure when empty. Such pressure can
be considerable, especially if the soil around the tank is wet, contains expansive clay, is
subject to frost heave, or is driven on by big trucks. To resist these forces, tanks designed
for underground use generally:
are deeply ribbed shapes or spheres, if made of plastic
have thick walls of concrete (any shape)
have high-strength walls of fiberglass in a cigar shape (like a big propane tank)
If you expect your buried tank to be empty with any regularity or for any length of
time, it should be designed to resist this inward loading (spherical polyethylene tanks
are).
Note that deeply ribbed polyethylene septic tanks, though designed for burial, are
designed to always be full of water in order to push back against the soil that is trying to
collapse the tank. When you pump such a septic tank, you are supposed to refill it immediately. This style of tank often collapses inward despite being filled with water. These are
essentially cheap, disposable tanks, installed in a location (underground) where installation is expensive and disposal or replacement is difficulta bad combination.
Wet soil can also pop a tank to the surface like a cork. Tanks are highly buoyant when
empty. Even something as small as a 55 gal drum has 400 lbs of upward force on it when
empty in wet soil. For a 1,000 gal tank, the upward force equals 4 tonsin the right conditions, enough to pop up through the asphalt of a driveway and lift a small car.m

The size of your storage is one of the main factors that will determine under what
circumstances you will find yourself short of water, and for how long. Will demand outstrip supply every morning? When there is a fire? A day after the well pump goes out? It
will also do a lot to determine what your system costs.
Sizing your tank is a matter of figuring out what degree of water security you want,
then finding the tank volume that makes the most of your water supply within your
budget and other limiting factors. This is a good time to remember the reason(s) you
want storage, as they will drive the calculation of tank size:

You want more water security than a direct connection to the source can provide.
The yield of the source cannot directly provide for peak demand.
The yield of the source is less than that required for firefighting.
The source is less secure than water stored in a tank (e.g., if the source requires
pumping water, while water stored in a tank doesn't).
The pipeline distance to the source is so far that it is more economical to use a
smaller size pipe and a tank than a pipe large enough to carry the peak flow all the
way from the source to the users.16
The biggest variable by far is how much water security you're aiming for. In general,
the more storage you have, the better your water security. (See Perfection and Security
Standard, p. 4, for a discussion of how water security standards tend to get overinflated.)

'"Metric: Upward lift on empty tanks in wet soil: 180 kg for 200 L drum, 3,600 kg for 4 m* tank.

32

Plastic septic
tanks
are false
economy,
besides the inherent
flimsiness, the one
below, from Norwesco,
had holes welded right
through it at the factory. It cost the owners
$1,000 to take this
brand new tank out and
replace it.

Water
spurting from
holes in
badly,
made
NorWesco
tank

Without storage, the securitythe percentage of time you've got wateris equal to the
security of the source. The more storage you've got, the longer an interruption to the
source supply you can cover with stored water (see Figure 9, below).
FIGURE 9 : WATER SECURITY v s . TANK SIZE FOR DIFFERENT SOURCES

Gravity flow spring

100 I

Pumped veil
Gravity flow
surface water

80
% of Time
Appropriate
Amount of gg
Water Is
Available

Rooftop rainwater
Climate with Regular rainfall

40

Rooftop rainwater
Climat'p with irregular

rainfall

20

Power
outage

Days to
fix leak

Pays to
fix broken
line

10..

Typical
duration
of turbid
water
after
rainfall

20

15

Days to
replace
pump

Pays of

Storage

Is it possible to have too much storage? Yes. Too much storage can lead to freezing or
water age problems (see Water Age, p. 12). More likely, it simply constitutes a waste of
the Earth's valuable resources. Because of the high upfront cost of storage, it is rare to see
anyone except the super-wealthy install too much storage volume.
There are factors that can lower the optimum amount of storage:
Not enough moneyDue to the high upfront cost of storage, you may wish to live
with less than the optimum amount of storage initially or permanently.
Not enough space.
Not enough elevation differenceIf the water source isn't much higher than the use
location, you may not want to have a big tank use up a lot of the elevation difference
(and pressure) between the tank's inlet and outlet.
Problematic accessFor instance, you may reduce your tank size if you have to handcarry the tank or materials to the site.
Avoiding wasteEven if you can afford the money and space, why waste the natural
resources if more storage doesn't confer much advantage? (See Tunnel Vision, p. 5.)
If you hated word problems in math, you may wish to skip ahead to Tank Shape, p. 36...

Sizing a Tank for Demand Peaks which Exceed Flow

Although water needs are usually expressed as a value-per-person for a 24-hour day,
in actuality just about all of this water will be used during a period of 10-12 hours. Over
half of the entire day's water use may happen between dinner time and bedtime, or
in the morning, depending on the culture. Water provided by the source during lowdemand periods (e.g., overnight) can be stored for use during high-demand periods.
The minimum amount of storage that will not leave you short of water every day
when usage peaks can be determined by making a table comparing the water coming
into the storage compared to the water going out, throughout the day.

33

25

IF EXTRAORDINARY DEMAND (E.G., FOR IRRIGATION OR WEEKEND

FIGURE 1 0 : HOURLY WATER USE 17

WORKSHOPS) PUSHES CONSUMPTION BEYOND THE DAILY PRODUCTION

FOR DAYS AT A TIME, YOU MAY NEED TO LOOK AT A LONGER INTERVAL.
ONE COMMUNITY, FOR EXAMPLE, HAS SPELLS OF EXTREMELY HOT AND
DRY WEATHER, WHICH LAST UP TO TWO WEEKS. DUE TO INCREASED

P
G

IRRIGATION, THE PEAK WATER DEMAND CAN EXCEED THE MAXIMUM

COMBINED PRODUCTION OF ALL SOURCES FOR SEVERAL DAYS. FOR 30
HOUSES THERE IS 100,000

GAL (380 M3) OF STORAGE, WHICH IS TWO

weeks of average summer use with no water production, or

enough to cover two weeks of deficit consumption and still
provide a generous fire reserve.

|> %
"I

>$

& 1
Midnight 6 AM

Noon
Times (hours)

TABLE 5: SIZING A TANK FOR REGULAR, PERIODIC DEMAND PEAKS (SAMPLE CALCULATION)
In this example, the use for the system is 26,000 gal (100 md) per day with an hourly profile as in the
graph above right. The supply is a 20 gpm (115 m'/day) spring. The table below shows the difference
between how much water is produced and consumed throughout the day, most particularly in the
critical evening hours:
Supply
gal/L
9pm-6 am

Demand
gal/L

Difference
gal/L

10800/ 41,000

5100/19,300

+5700/21,600

6 am-12 pm

7200/27,000

7300/28,000

-100/380

12 pm-6 pm

7200/ 27,000

8400/32,000

-1200/ 4,500

6 pm-9pm 3600/ 13,600

5200/ 19,700

-1600/ 6,000

Largest deficiency

1600 gal/ 6 m3

To provide for daily variation, a tank a bit larger than the largest deficiency would be indicated.

Note: The most common reason to size storage based on daily demand peaks is that you can't
afford enough storage to cover emergencies or supply interruptions. If any of the sizing factors
below come into play, your system will require more storage volume, and the daily demand peaks
are moot. However, the same approach can be used to calculate demand peaks over any other time
interval.

Sizing a Tank When You Have Limited Water Supply with

Scheduled Use
This approach is the inverse of the approach above. It may be appropriate if the water
supply is limited and there are known lengths of time without water use. Instead of
sizing the tank to cover use, you size the tank to cover production of the source during
the longest time without water use. If you store all the water that is produced during the
longest time without usage, you'll have maximized your limited supply.
For instance, if water use occurs only during the day and the source goes 24 hours a
day (like a spring), or has a limited 24-hour production (like a low-yield well), then the
tank should be sized to hold at least the night's water production. This way, the full 24
hours' production is available during the hours of use.
A bottled water plant in Mexico plans to use water from a spring that yields only 2
gpm (4 1pm) in the dry season. If the plant is idle 16 hours a day, the full utility of the
source could be captured with 2,000 gal (7.6 m3) of storage (16 hours of flow x 60 minutes
x the flow per minute). If the plant is idle on Sunday, 32 hours of spring flow could be
captured for Monday's production, using a 4,000 gal (15 rn3) tank. Discretionary tasks
that use a lot of water could be scheduled for Mondays to take advantage of the extra
water.

34

6 PM

Midnigh

Sizing a Tank to Cover Use During Interruptions in Supply

Most systems have at least a day's worth of storage to cover supply interruptions, due
to s e r v i c i n g a^ault within the system, or a disaster such as an earthquake or power ou age % size you r tank for supply mterruption, consider what is likely to jeopardize your
supply and for how long (see Figure 9, p. 33). Also consider:
If vour outlet is at the bottom of the tank, you may consume all your backup water
before you figure out there's a p r o b l e m - Y o u could install an alarm, but mid- and
low-level outlets with valves will provide more security more simply. When your taps
go dry at the mid-level, you can go to the tank and open the lower valve to access your
emergency water. (You can also make a Variable Height Outlet, p. 68.)
Warning You don't want to have to go open a valve to get at fire reserve water. The preferred
arrangement is to have the fire hydrant-only-connected
from a lower-level outlet than the
house/irrigation supply.
If you are aware that your water supply is interrupted, you can usually stretch your
reserve quite a bit longerThrough conservation.
The only storage big enough to cover year- or multi-year-long droughtsIs in
natural aquifers (see Conjunctive Use, p. 19), or large open reservoirs (a questionable
technologysee dam discussion, p. 20).
TABLE 6 : COVERING U S E DURING INTERRUPTIONS IN SUPPLY (SAMPLE CALCULATION)

In this example, the average daily use for the system is 1,200 gal (45 in3). The only water source is a well.
Experience has shown that the supply gets interrupted about this long, this often, and for these reasons:
i Max days supply
interruption

Average frequency

Cause

Once a year

Electrical blackout

Once in 2 years

Big leaks in supply line

Once in 2 years

Pull pump for scheduled maintenance

Once in 5 years

Unscheduled maintenance or replacement of pump

wuuiu uc expeLueu to cover supply interruptions that onlv occur once

every five years. (7 days x 4.5 m; = 31.5 m \)
2 days x 1,200 gal = 2,400 gal of storage would be expected to leave you without water for a few days each five
years. It would be easier to make up this shortfall by not irrigating for one week each five years and by usine
stringent indoor conservation, rather than by spending the extra money for a bigger tank. So, in this case eo
with a 2,500 gal tank, the closest available size to 2,400. (2 days x 4.5 nr = 9 m3.)

Sizing a Tank When Production Is Intermittent

FIGURE 1 1 : GRAPHICAL

If your water production is intermittent (for instance, from harvesting rainwater),

your tank should cover the maximum cumulative deficit between production and con
sumption. There is a simple, graphical technique to calculate this:
Plot a bar graph of average runoff from your roof
by month.
Plot cumulative runoff, by adding each monthly
figure to all the previous ones.
Draw a line equal to your cumulative water use.
Figure 11 (right) shows the final graph. The gap
between the cumulative supply and cumulative demand shows the storage need or deficit. (See Rainwater
Harvesting and Runoff Management3 for more on sizing
tanks for rainfall.)

c
o
c
3

ra
3

E
3
o

35

CALCULATION OF
STORAGE FOR RAINWATER
HARVESTING 18

Maximum
water in tank
Six-month dry season

If the tank was only 40 m3, the

supply line would cross the demand line, and the household is
out of water. If it doesn't
cross,
then there is always water.

Sizing a Tank for Firefighting

Sizing Fire Storage

storage, bigger p ! pe S / and higher pressure than you

could otherwise imagine. A residence with its own water
system may (for example) be required to have:
a tank 20' or more from the structure (or fireproofed)
4 ' 0 0 0 a l of storage, 2,000 gal of which is set aside
for firefighting
provision for the supply to automatically start refilling the tank when the level drops below 3500 gal
A subdivision might require:
6" hydrants with 4" and 2.5" outlets every 500'
enough storage to supply 500 gpm at 100 psi for
two hours from any of the hydrants
There may be many pages of specifics about every
aspect of the firefighting water supply in the applicable
code; be sure to inform yourself about them early in the
project. Ask your local Fire Marshal to review the plans
for your system and provide suggestions.
See Systems for Firefighting, p. 78, for more on water
for firefighting, including the use of foam to enhance the
utility of a small amount of water.

SSR = NFF + MDC - PC - ES SS-FDS

-OrSSR = Storage Supply Required EQUALS
NFF = Needed Fire Flow PLUS
MDC = Maximum Daily Consumption LESS
PC = Production Capacity (based on the capacity
of the treatment plant, the well capacity, or the
pump capacity, depending on the system) LESS
ES = Emergency Supply (the water that can be
brought into the system from connections with
other systems) LESS
SS = Suction Supply (the supply that can be taken
from nearby lakes and canals during the fire)
LESS
FDS = Fire Department Supply (water that can be
brought to the fire by trucks)
(All quantities are in flow units, i.e., volume per
time.)
Water Distribution System Handbook 19

Size and Structural Integrity

As tanks get bigger, the structural engineering issues get much bigger. Tanks of
a thousand gallons are no great challenge. A 10,000 gal (40 my) tank requires serious
consideration of the loads that will be operating on it. (See Appendix B: Tank Loads and
Structural Considerations.) Any tank over 30,000 gal (110 m}) should be professionally
engineered.
The tank shape determines how the material will resist the applied force and thus
how easy it will be to resist a given load. This is something that you should consider
carefully if you are making or modifying a tank. (See next section and Appendix B).

Tank Shape
Now that we've got the location and size of your tank, let's consider the shape. What
difference does shape make? Shape affects:
how much material it takes to contain a given volume of water (materials efficiency)
how easily the tank material can resist the loads applied to it (structural efficiency)
how much elevation (pressure) is lost between the top of the tank and the bottom
how easy the tank is to fabricate in a given material
> how easily a given volume of water fits into its location
See Figure 12: Tank Shapes (facing page) for a graphical overview of tank shapes.
Avoid square or rectangular shapes and sharp comers. These are inefficient structurally
and in use of materials. An egg uses the least material to enclose the most water, and is
the most structurally efficientat least until you try to set it down on a flat surface.

"Metric: at least 6 in from structure, 15 m3 of storage, 7.5 ut> for firefighting, auto-refill below 13 m3; 15 cm hydrants with 10 cm and 6 cm outlets even/150 m, enough storage to supply 2 m'lmin at 700 kPafor two hours.

36

FIGURE 1 2 : TANK SHAPES

Cylinder, conical top
Cylinder, dome

top

Rainwater
catching roof

Cylinder, flat top

Cylinder, open top

sq(jat

Cylinder, tall
Tower

Urn with domed floor and top

Parrel

dar

Pressure

Hemisphere

-i^wtofry

tanks

Septic
tank

Large tankwider than tall

Rectangular
Octagon

*Never seen a 100,000 gal egg, but it would be way cool. This is the theoretically most material-efficient tank shape. Start with a sphere (lowest
area to volume ratio). Squeeze the bottom so as water pressure rises, the diameter shrinks. This makes the hoop stress in the walls constant.
The walls can be of uniform thickness then, like a clay jar. See p. 41, 91,112 for more on materials efficiency.
37

The classic tank shapecylindrical, about as big around as it is tall, with a domed
roof and flat flooris a good combination of structural and materials efficiency, ease of
fabrication, and ease of setting on a flat surface. All else being equal, this is the way to go.
Here are some of the exceptions:
If you've got very little fallUse a tank that is wide and short so you lose less height
between inlet and outlet.
If the tank is pressurizedA sphere or cylinder with rounded ends (like a propane
tank) is the most structurally efficient.
Location influences shape:
Tanks designed to be buriedOften have special shapes to resist uneven pressure
from the outside, especially if they are made of plastic (see Buried Storage, p. 31).
Tanks on towersBecause they don't need to be set on flat earth, can and often do approach the materials-efficiency ideal of a spherical shape (see photos p. iv, 29).
Large tanks on steep slopesMay need to be made rectangular or oblong to fit (with
the tank wider across the slope and narrower in the up-down direction, like an enclosed, water-holding terrace).
In tight quartersTall cylinders occupy fewer square feet for more storage. The same
can be true for buried tanks or squares and rectangles, if their shape fits in tighter.
For cylindrical tanks, diameter equal to height is the most materials-efficient ratio.
However, it doesn't cost you much extra material to vary this ratio up to 2:1. For example, a tank 1.5 times as wide as tall only has 2% more surface area than a tank with height
equal to width. A tank twice as wide as tall only has 5% more area.
Even a sphere (the most efficient volume-enclosing shape there is) only has about 13%
less surface area per unit of volume than a cylindrical tank with a domed roof.
While it may seem that more area equals more material, the opposite can be true for
tanks wider than tall. As pressure is proportional to water depth, the wider the tank, the
lower the pressure for a given volume of water and the thinner the material the whole
thing can be made of. (You can use our Tank Calculator 6 to see how this works.)
An exception: As mentioned previously, tanks with stiff floors, say a concrete slab,
need to be thick. Thus, making the tank wider takes much more material, since there is
more floor the wider the tank is. Though the pressure is less, you still have to make the
slab thick enough to span 2CM0' (6-12 m) without cracking. If you build a sphere, egg, or
dome-bottomed tank, most of the materials savings in reality would be from not having
a thick slab floor (See p. 112).
The material your tank is made of makes a difference with shape, too. For factory-made tanks of
plastic or steel, the classic as-wide-as-tall cylindrical tank is the most materials- and cost-efficient,
and the most available shape. For smaller steel
tanks, the ease of fabricating conical roofs outweighs the structural advantages of domed roofs.
Circular tanks are difficult to build of rock,
especially in small diameters. Rock tanks are
easier to build with straight walls. The shape of
the best compromise between materials-efficiency
and ease of construction for rock tanks shifts as
the size increases. A square is best up to about 10'
(3m) across, then a hexagon, then an octagon, and
finally, a circle.16
Ferrocement tanks can be just about any shape. If you must have a tank in the shape
of an egg, urn, boulder, or curled dinosaur, ferrocement is your material. Cylindrical
with a low-domed roof is the best compromise between easy-to-build and materialsefficient. (See Appendix D: How to Make Ferrocement Tanks.)

38

A 3,500 gal (13 m3)

ferrocement tank the
shape and color of the
surrounding rocks.

Tank Materials
There are plenty of choices for water tank materials, each with advantages and disadvantages. Table 7 (following page) summarizes their characteristics.

Materials Situations to Avoid

Despite all the contradictory data and opinions on the topic of how materials can
contaminate stored water, a few circumstances are unequivocally hazardous and to be
avoided:
PVC exposed to sunlightPVC breaks down in sunlight,
reacting to form carcinogens, which leach into the water. It is
a plumbing code violation to have potable water in unshaded
PVC for this reason. You can see physical evidence of the
change on the outside of the pipe; it darkens and becomes
chalky and brittle. The reaction progresses from the outside
in. To the extent PVC should be used at all, it should be buried
or indoors. If you have PVC that has already degraded, you
should replace it.
Pre-1997 PVCWhich was made with more toxic plasticizers.
Flexible PVC water bed bladders or trash cansWhich contain
a high level of toxic plasticizers.
Pre-1980 tank coatings including coal tar and lead-based
paintThese were great for corrosion resistance but oops!
they poison the water.
Lead pipe and pre-1987 lead-soldered copper pipeSolders
and flux currently contain less than 2% lead. Before 1987 they
typically were half lead. Lead pipe can be recognized by its softness.
Western red cedarThe same stuff that smells good and keeps
it from rotting is toxic when ingested.
Fly ash in concreteEspecially when exposed to acidic water.

Lead
Lead is a metal used for plumbing since
Roman times. It is toxic if inhaled or swallowed. Just 15 parts per billion of lead is a
hazard in drinking water (that's about five
sand grains' worth per year). It accumulates in the body, and at high levels attacks
the brain, kidneys, nervous system, and
red blood cells.
If you are concerned about lead in your
plumbing, have your water tested. If you
can't replace the pipes, use the cold water
tap for making tea and food. Hot water
leaches more lead out of the plumbing. You
can also run drinking water from the tap
until it becomes colder before drinking it,
using the flush water for houseplants or
another purpose.

Often the worst hazards are not the base material, but solvents, additives, moldrelease agents, fungicides, etc. to facilitate manufacture.
For more on leaching hazard by material, see the summary in Table 7: a Tank
Materials, p. 40, and the material by material discussion which follows. There are also
details on less common plastics in Appendix C, and another plethora of information in
our Water Storage Extras download. 6 NSF International has a searchable database of
products which meet NSF 61, their widely followed standard for materials in contact
with drinking water.20

Glass
Glass is unequivocally the best material for storing drinking water. It imparts neither taste nor toxins, and can be washed, heated, and reused until broken, at which point
it can be melted and recycled, endlessly, without degradation.
The weight and fragility of glass is an issue, but not an unmanageable one. In the village where I work in Mexico, the villagers are highly attuned to the taste and quality of
drinking water. Five gallon (20 L) glass containers for transport and storage of drinking
water remain popular despite the availability and greater convenience of plastic.
Toxicity/Leaching: No issue except with leaded glass.
Taste: Imparts no taste to water.

39

T A B L E 7 : C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S OF D I F F E R E N T T A N K M A T E R I A L S

Key

y=yes, m=maybe
blank=no or not applicable.
CAPITAL, Bold = emphatically so!
1 =best, 5=worst

Comment

Material, construction

Best choice for large quantities of water, esp. in arid lands

Aquifer

Best choice for drinking water

Glass

Best permanent tank, DIY tank (frost resistance unknown)

Ferrocement

o
3
5

Best for diversions; not tanks

Rock

Good for septic tanks, buried tanks

Pre-cast concrete

Used for large, municipal tanks

Cast in place concrete

Unglazed, fired clay

Good primitive tech water storage

Glazed clay

Good primitive tech water storage

Good for small, custom size and shape tanks, valve boxes

Brick and cement

Good for large quantities of water, possibly wildlife, recreation

Unlined pond

Good medium size tank, large site-fabricated on-site tanks

W e l d e d g a l v a n i z e d steel

Good movable tank

B o l t e d g a l v a n i z e d steel

Inexpensive

Galvanized steel w/ plastic membrane

Good for small tanks (rare)

Porcelain-bonded carbon steel

Popular for huge municipal tanks

Epoxy-coated steel

Best for transporting water

Stainless steel

Best cheap, easy to install, movable tank. Used in "cloudy" milk

H i g h D e n s i t y Polyethylene H D P E # 2

and water jugs, water tanks, pipe

Could be the most durable tank of all. Sacrifices mobility for sun

Masonry in and over HDPE

resistance and effective drainage

Excellent properties, but concern about toxins

G R P Glass-reinforced polyester

Best artificial pond liner

EDPM-lined pond

Avoid, due to plasticizers. Used in water beds, some soft bottles

PVC (vinyl membrane)

Low cost is the attraction

Aboveground swimming pool

Good for small, flexible water bottles and food storage bags

L o w Density Polyethylene LDPE #4

Used in rigid containers, baby bottles, cups, bowls, bottle caps

PP Polypropylene #5

Used for mineral water

P E T E # 1 Polyethylene Terephthalate

Sso
S-i 3

w oI
M ($>

Polycarbonate PC (cat. #7, "other")

Used in 5 gal water bottles, baby bottles, Nalgene bottles

PVC (rigid) #3 Polyvinyl Chloride

Popular for pipe. Highly toxic in manufacture and disposal

Good for fittings

Brass

Good for indoor supply plumbing, gutters

Copper

Not great for water storage

Aluminum

Beautiful

Redwood

Good for wine

Oak

Beautiful

Cedar

Good for bota bags

Leather

Footnotes
a) Leaking is a concern for this use
b) If properly engineered and constructed

c) Ordinary plastic tanks can be buried 1 - 3 ' . Special

plastic tanks are made for below grade use
d) Especially in thick-walled containers

e) See notes on p. 39 of hazards of PVC in sunlight or

older PVC
f ) Forms nasty toxins on burning

g) Offers sun protection if black, no protection if

Black plastic lasts longer in the sun than clear
h) Really
expensive

transparent.

Ferrocement
Ferrocement tanks offer nearly the durability and
strength of concrete at a fraction of the materials use,
and with complete flexibility in shape. Ferrocement
tanks are constructed from a grid of steel reinforcement
covered with a sand/cement mix. The resulting wall
is only two to four fingers thick, and is, particularly if
curved, incredibly strong.
They are cost-competitive made to order, or you can
make them yourself. Ferrocement is arguably the best
all-around material for a permanent water tank.
The downside? You can't move them. And, you will
have to make them yourself unless you live near one
of the few folks who make them to order.21-22 They are
labor-intensive and require some construction experience and ambition to build. We were unable to find
information about the resistance of ferrocement to
freeze/thaw cycles. (You can see the full magnitude of
the do-it-yourself task in Appendix D: How to Make
Ferrocement Tanks.)
Toxicity/Leaching: For best protection, use NSF 61
certified cement in the construction of your ferrocement
tank, and NSF 61 certified sealers.20 There is little concern about leaching from cement stucco after it has
cured, which is mostly achieved within 30 days. The
exception is with acid water or sulfides, which could
continue to dissolve the tank.
Taste: May add a cement flavor until it is done curing, after which there is typically no detectable taste.

Galvanized Steel
Bolted or welded galvanized steel tanks offer high
strength, medium durability, good fire resistance,
and good transportability, and are overall an attractive choice. There is a substantial range in quality among
galvanized steel tanks. The thicker the metal, the better.
Corrugation generally indicates thinner metal. Welded steel
is more common for small tanks. Large tanks can be welded
or bolted.
Galvanizing works by letting zinc corrode in order to
save the steel. The zinc gets consumed in the process. When
it's used up, the steel underneath is left naked and unprotected and will corrode rapidly. If this is happening in just
a few exterior spots, you could paint them with paint that
contains zinc. However, I wouldn't trust this stuff on the
inside of a tank containing potable water.
As the corrosion proceeds, it will result in lots of rusty
powder, flakes, and sometimes, huge sheets sloughing off
inside the tank (photo, right). If your tank is displaying this
symptom, it would be a good idea to add an outlet screen.
This will keep large pieces of rust from entering the plumbing and wreaking havoc there. There isn't much else you
can do at this point except to save your pennies toward a
new tank, or consider a repair membrane (p. 48).

41

Materials Efficiency
Tank size, shape, and material together determine the
materials efficiency the ratio of the units of water
volume to the units of material enclosing it. These
ratios cover quite a range:
2:1 for a rectangular, below-grade 1,000 gal (3.4
nv) pre-cast concrete septic tank
12:1 for a lightest-duty 3,000 gal (II mr) cylindrical ferrocement tank with a domed roof and
thin slab in non-industrialized nations
9:1 for the same tank with medium-duty
ferrocement construction
6:1 for the same tank with heavy-duty
ferrocement construction
140:1 for the same tank made of steel
70:1 for the same tank made of plastic
10:1 for a 100,000 gal (380 ni) ferrocement tank
made with flat slab and 3:1 width-to-height
ratio
15:1 for a 100,000 gal ferrocement tank made
with conical slab and 2:1 width-to-height ratio
25:1 (in theory) for a 100,000 gal, half-buried
egg-shaped ferrocement tank (as yet untried, to
our knowledge)
Materials efficiency is desirable in a world where the
human footprint is ever-increasing. In general, more
materials efficiency costs more labor and requires more
attention to the design process. If you're interested
in pursuing this topic, you might like to play with
the Tank Calculator in our Water Storage Extras
download.6

Giant
sheets
of rust peeling
off the inside
of an old galvanized bolted
steel tank. Upper inlet has
brass nipple
in it; the lower
inlet has a PVC
male adapter.
In each case
the function
is to keep the
threads usable.

Accounts of short-lived galvanized tanks are generally traceable to

mechanical damage to the galvanizing; uncontrolled water overflow over
the outside of the tank, lack of a firm, free-draining gravel base; or use of
electrolytically incompatible copper pipe or fittings. Properly installed,
a good galvanized tank can last for many decades, and when it's finally
done for, the steel is readily recyclable.
Toxicity/Leaching: Galvanized steel itself may leach both iron and zinc
into the water, but neither of these are a great concern for humans. Zinc is
highly toxic to fish, according to one source. If your tank has a liner, then
the toxicity and taste issues will be determined by the liner.
Taste: Doesn't generally impart a taste unless rust is stirred up off the
bottom, in which case the water will look and taste gross. But since iron
oxide is neither particularly toxic nor soluble in water, rust is primarily an
aesthetic issue.

doited tank construction. The rubber

gasket keeps the joints from leaking.

A really thick-walled, unplated coupling

designed for welding into tank walls to
form inlets and outlets.

A good quality, 50+ year old bolted steel

galvanized tank (with smooth surface, in
background) and a less than 15 year old
cheap, riveted galvanized steel tank (with
corrugations, in foreground). Though much
newer, the cheaper tank shows signs that
it will fall before the older, higher quality
tank. The pile of parts in the foreground
is for another good quality, bolted galvanized steel tank.

Stainless Steel
The Cadillac material for liquid storage, stainless steel is so expensive it is almost
never used for water, except for transporting it (see Tanks for Transporting Water, p. 54).
Chlorinated water can corrode stainless steel.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Stainless steel does not generally leach toxins, nor affect the
taste of the water.

Porcelain-Bonded Carbon Steel

A rarity as a water tank material, baked enamel offers the strength of steel and the
inertness of porcelain in contact with the water. I've heard that silo-rings of this material
can be salvaged and adapted for use as water tanks.
Toxicity/Leaching: Generally low, however, some colors contain heavy metals.
Taste: No effect on taste.

Brass
Brass is good for plumbing, but rarely used for containers, due to its cost.
Toxicity/Leaching: Leaches copper and zinc, but does not pose a threat to humans.
Taste: No effect on taste.

Copper
Copper is rarely used for tanks due to its expense. Arguably the best material for rain
gutters and indoor supply plumbing, it is common in these applications. Acidic water
can deteriorate copper pipes and roofs.

42

Copper lasts a long time. The rate of leaching from copper decreases over time,
presumably as the surface skins over with reaction products. Mining copper is environmentally devastating. Copper is readily recyclable.
Toxicity/Leaching: Copper leaches into water enough to kill microorganisms, but is of
low toxicity to humans.
Taste: No effect on taste.

Aluminum
Aluminum is rarely used for tanks due to its expense, and rarely used for plumbing
due to issues with electrolytic corrosion (the plumbing acting like a giant battery, with
the metals electrochemically consumed). Absent acidic conditions or electrolytic corrosion, aluminum lasts a long time. Aluminum mining is environmentally damaging.
Refining aluminum from ore takes prodigious amounts of electricity. Aluminum is readily recyclable.
Toxicity/Leaching: The rate of leaching decreases rapidly as the surface skins over
with reaction products. However, acidic water can aggressively dissolve aluminum.
Healthy people typically have low levels of aluminum because the digestive tract, skin,
and lungs are effective barriers to absorption, and the kidneys efficiently eliminate
absorbed aluminum. Although some studies have suggested a tentative link between
aluminum and Alzheimer's disease and dementia, the evidence as a whole does not support a causal association. 23
Taste: May add a slight metallic taste.

Rock and Mortar

It is tough to surpass a well-crafted
rock tank for beauty and durability.
However, the popularity of rock tanks as
a choice for new construction of water
storage is fading to zero in industrialized
countries. This is a consequence of the
large amount of skilled labor needed to
build a tank, the staggering amount of
material to build even a small tank, and
their tendency to leak.
They remain an attractive option
where labor is cheap, rock more accessible than bought tanks, and a bit of
leakage to nourish their attractive patina
of moss and plants no great loss.
I specify rock and mortar for diversions in natural watercourses. It just feels
right, and is less intrusive than concrete
and rebar. One real factor is that when
floodwaters smash the diversion, it's just
more boulders and sand in the creek bed,
not an evil tangle of broken concrete and
dangerously protruding, twisted rebar.
Dry-laid rock can be used for sunscreen and visual upgrade on tanks of
other materials. (See Masonry in and over
Plastic, p. 47, and photo at right.)
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Same as for
ferrocement (they are plastered inside, so
the water contact surface is the same).

A 12,000 gal (44 m3> mortar and

rock diversion at the base of a
waterfall in Mexico.
5,000

gal

(20 m3)

leak-plagued
mortared
stone tank
for a community water supply in
Mexico.

Aesthetic shield of rock around a 13,000 gal (50 m3)

ferrocement
cistern.

43

Concrete
Concrete is especially popular for large, municipal tanks. Most concrete tanks are made with reusable forms, which enable the considerable effort and
expense of making suitable forms to be amortized
over many tanks. Concrete tanks offer durability
approaching that of rock, but with much less material and leaks. Pre-cast or cast-in-place concrete is
good where high strength is needed to meet external
loads, in buried tanks, for example.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Same as for ferrocement.

Brick
This is another old-fashioned technique, good for
small, square tanks in non-industrialized nations. It
is much easier and quicker to work with than rock.
I think this technique is under-utilized in modern
construction in the US, where it is suitable for smallsized tanks with specialized shapes, valve boxes,
clean-outs, etc.. The Mexican masons on US job
sites know how to do these things, if only they were
asked...
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Same as for ferrocement
(they are plastered inside, so the water contact surface is the same).

Large concrete water tank at a retirement

2,000 members in Oregon.

community of

Pulling reusable steel

forms off of a
new concrete
tank in a Mexican village.

Valve box with locking

metal lid, made of brick
in Mexico.

tl L'
! .

A cast
concrete
rain-filled tank for
refilling fire trucks
in the Los Padres
National Forest.

Clay
Clay is rarely used for bulk water storage outside
of non-industrialized nations. It is heavy, brittle
and beautiful. (See photo, back cover. Minerals from
evaporated water are the source of the patina on this
old tinaja.) Clay is an excellent material for storing
drinking water. Ceramic urns of 55 gal (200 L) capacity remain common in Burma.
Toxicity/Leaching: Generally of low concern.
Glazes may contain heavy metals. Of particular concern is lead glaze on low-fired pots from Mexico.
Taste: Unglazed, low-fired pots can add an earth
taste to the water, but they keep it cool due to slow
evaporation.

A 1,000 gal (3.3 m')

pre-cast
concrete
septic tank.

44

Wood
Wood tanks were a common means of storing water in the past. They are beautiful
and ingenious. The wood expands when wet, and steel hoops contain the expansion so
the plank joints seal tight against each other. Wood tanks are most commonly made of
redwood, cedar, or oak. Oak tanks are used mostly for wine.
Wood tanks have lost popularity due to a shortage of old-growth trees to make big,
thick, close-vertical-grained heartwood planksplus high cost, the necessity of keeping
the tanks generally full to avoid drying out, and the tendency to leak slightly. The number of new wooden tanks outside the wine and hot tub industries has dropped nearly to
zero.
The main limitation of wood for water tanks is that if you let the water level drop, the
boards will dry out. If you raise the water level back up slowly enough, the walls will
swell again and seal, and hardly any water will leak out. But if you let the floor dry out,
you may lose the tank. Your best chance in that case is to tighten the lower hoops, then
put a sprinkler or mister inside the tank. If you're lucky the boards will swell enough
after several hours that it will start to hold water again.
In areas where old wooden tanks were common, you may be able to buy them for a
fraction of the value of the wood in them. I got a 900 gal (3.4 m3) redwood tank for fifty
bucks. I put new hoops on it, and sealed the cracks with special goop for this application.24 The floor eventually buckled where it had nearly rotted through. However, it still
holds water. The slow drip goes onto an orange tree, which is happy to have it. (Photo,
inside back cover.)
There's no way to get a drain sump in
a wood tank, but you can put in a floor
drain, and install the tank tilted so the
floor slopes toward it. To install a floor
drain, drill a hole for the drain pipe,
then mill a round depression around it
with a router, then install a bulkhead
fitting in it. Attach to the outlet using a
rubber coupling with hose clamps. This
will enable you to unhook the drain
to m o v e the tank, a n d will reduce the

Two 70 year old redwood tanks, one leaking, one not. The water in this system

h'3hly vulturous and quickly corrodes galvanized tanks.

chance that the plumbing will crack as
the tank shifts around.
Toxicity/Leaching: No issues, except the oils that make cedar so rot-resistant are toxic
to humans as well as to microbes; a cedar tank is not suitable for potable water storage.
Caution: Some folks make water tanks out of treated marine plywood. I think both the shape
(big, flat, weak surfaces) and the toxic, non-durable material are ill advised for water tanks.
Taste: May give the water a slight, non-objectionable wood taste.

Plastic
Plastic tanks are low cost, lightweight, and impervious. They are a good choice for
small- and medium-sized tanks for residences and farms. The downside is that they are
not available in big sizes, they turn into difficult-to-recycle trash relatively rapidly, and
the bought tanks generally have a problematic combined outlet / drain.
All of these drawbacks except for the small-size limitation can be overcome by the
techniques described in Masonry in and over Plastic, p. 47, at the cost of sacrificing the
possibility of relocating the tank.
Which plastics are best? The danger of leaching from plastics depends on many
variables. It is both poorly understood and controversial. The American Plastics Council,
for example, has a different take than Greenpeace. Greenpeace is calling for a worldwide ban on PVC, a move gaining traction in a number of countries. The figure from

45

is

Greenpeace (at right), modeled on the food pyramid, proposes a proportion of plastic use based on ecological impact.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: The bottom line for water tanks is to use
HDPE, and use as little PVC as possible. (See Table 7 for overall ratings
by specific plastic, Appendix C for less common plastics, and Water
Storage Extras 6 for an exhaustive survey of what is known on this
topic.)

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE # 2 )

SUGGESTED PROPORTIONS
FOR PLASTIC U S E

Biofrased
polymers
PE, PP
PET

HDPE is the preferred plastic for water tanks, for which it is

the most commonly used material. It is relatively innocuous in its
manufacturing, use, and disposal, at least compared to other plastics.
When the tank is no longer serviceable, the plastic can be reused.
Polyethylene is not currently recycledit is cascaded to uses with less
stringent materials requirements.
High-density polyethylene is also the preferred plastic for plumbing. It can and should be directly substituted for PVC in most piping applications. However, the use of polyethylene for tank plumbing details
is an alien practice in the US. One example of how such a connection can
be accomplished is shown in Figure 18: Drain Options, p. 61. You can
always insert a threaded adapter barb in a threaded in- or outlet and go
with polyethylene from there. To reduce leakage in HDPE pipe, cover
barbed connectors with silicone before clamping, or weld the lines.16
Toxicity/Leaching: Low toxicity.
Taste: Unfortunately, polyethylene can impart a plastic taste to the
water, though this is rarely noticeable in large tanks. Keeping the tank
shaded will reduce this effect.

PU, PS, ASS, PC

Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM)

Different height HDPE water tanks.

Shorter
tank is for drinking water; taller tank is
for all other uses. The systems aren't connected at all.

EPDM is the best artificial pond liner. It is a synthetic rubber resistant to heat, ozone, and UV light. It is able to stretch without tearing
(there are photos of EPDM liners under Store Water In Ponds, p. 20).
There is little data on leaching of EPDM, although it is generally considered to be pretty inert. It is a more environmentally friendly building
material than PVC.
EPDM is manufactured both for roofing and ponds. There is controversy about using EPDM roofing for ponds, with some claiming it can be
used if washed. Actually, both EPDM roofing and pond materials need
washing, as they are dusted with talcum powder to keep the plastic from
sticking to itself. If storing potable water, make sure that the product
meets NSF Standard 61 for contact with potable water.
In theory EPDM can be recycled, but it's not as easy as dropping it off
at the recycling center. It is a thermoset material and cannot be re-melted.
It can be ground up and used for something else. However, you may be
hard-pressed to find a recycler to take an old pond liner off your hands.
Toxicity/Leaching: Low. EPDM sold as a roofing material may have a
toxic coating.
Taste: Little or no effect on taste.

Fiberglass (Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyester, GRP)

Fiberglass tanks are very strong, lightweight, and non-corrosive.
Fiberglass is quite a bit stronger and more expensive than HDPE and
generally considered to be higher quality. It is certainly superior to

46

PVC

Plastic Taste
Waters bottled in PET plastic generally tasted better than those bottled
in HDPE. That was true even within
the same brand. [One brand], for
example, was very good when bottled
in PET, which imparted a hint of
sweet, fruity plastic flavor (imagine
the scent when you blow up a beach
ball). But [the same brand] was only
fair when bottled in HDPE, which
made it taste a bit like melted plastic
(imagine the smell when you get a
plastic container too close to a flame).
Consumer Reports

HDPE for underground tanks due to its high strength. Exceptionally nasty solvents are
used in the resin used to make fiberglass.
Toxicity/Leaching: There are reports of high concentrations of solvents in newly constructed fiberglass vessels (flushing is recommended). The literature is strangely quiet on
the longterm health effects of drinking water from fully cured fiberglass tanks. 6
Taste: There appears to be little effect on taste after full curing.

Epoxy-Coated Steel or Concrete

This is like a liner bonded to the tank. Epoxy-coated steel is a good choice for a large,
durable tank. This is a popular option for big municipal-sized tanks. See Polyamide
Epoxy in Appendix C for a look at the health and ecological effects.
Toxicity/Leaching: Moderate leaching concern. Make sure the coating meets the NSF
61 standard 20 for potable water. Also make sure that the epoxy is fully cured before filling
the tank, and flush the first few tankfuls of water.
Taste: There appears to be little effect on taste after full curing.

Masonry in and over Plastic

You can turn a cheapo plastic (essentially disposable) tank into a first-class,
high-performance, lifetime tank by combining it with masonry. This overcomes
many of the shortcomings of both materials. In the conventional combination
(metal/plastic liner), the metal can corrode and the light membrane puncture
or tear. If you combine a plastic tank with ferrocement or stone masonry,
there's nothing to corrode, and the thick plastic tank won't puncture or tear.
The full retrofit consists of:
making a sloped masonry floor with a drain sump and dedicated drain
adding a clean outlet
adding masonry around the outside (see photo at right, and Plastic Tank Drain
Retrofit, p. 60)
Masonry outside provides complete shade and sunscreen, extending the life of the
tank to approximately forever. The masonry can be dry-laid rock or stucco over chicken
wire. The bigger the tank, the harder the retrofit gets.
A masonry floor retrofit provides better drainage and cleaner outlet water. The masonry should be added with the tank full of warm water, i.e., at its maximum expansion,
so the plastic and not the masonry takes the tension load.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Same as for a plastic tank.

2 5 0 gal (1 m3) HDPE

drinking water tank
with new bulkhead fitting outlet and chicken
wire ready for stucco.
(See also Plastic Tank
Drain Retrofit, p. 60.)

Galvanized Steel with Plastic Membrane

The addition of an interior plastic membrane enables a much
lighter-weight galvanized tank to have an acceptable life span. The
trade-off is enjoying low cost versus losing the flexibility to add inlets
and outlets, reducing repairability and maintainability, and increasing
the difficulty of getting a good drain.
This composite tank design uses very lightweight steel for strength,
and a membrane for waterproofing. It seems like a very efficient use of
resources. However, I have a hard time getting myself to truly embrace something made out of plastic and the thinnest possible metal. It
essentially amounts to repairing the tank in advance, knowing it is too
thin to hold water for long. The brilliance of it is that without water
on the metal, it will last longer, and installing the membrane from the
get-go is cheaper than retrofitting it later when the tank is old, wet,
and rusty. This is a relatively new tank technology. Time will tell how
well these systems hold up.

47

50,000 gal (190 m")

galvanized steel tank
with plastic
membrane
liner.

Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Leaching hazard and taste depend on the membrane material, which can be PVC (bad), epoxy (supposedly OK after curing), or polyurethane (bad
in production, not clear how it is in use6).

Interior Membranes for Repair

If a structurally sound tank of any material starts to leak, you may be able to get
some more life out of it by adding a plastic membrane inside.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Depends on material, same as Galvanized Steel with Plastic
Membrane, above).

Plastic Bladders
This is a class of storage where the water is contained within a non-structural plastic
membrane, which is supported by some other structure. There are many options here,
ranging from a waterbed bladder, to a system where a giant slug of a membrane is
cocooned in underground culverts.25
I'm not particularly drawn to this approach. One objection is that plasticizers in flexible membranes tend to be more toxic than the same plastic in rigid form. (Don't drink
from your waterbedsee Materials Situations to Avoid, p. 39.) Beyond that, it just seems
sketchy to store a boatload of precious water in what amounts to a plastic bag. I would
think it would pinhole all over, or possibly tear unless you were fanatically careful about
the installation and service. However, in practice, these systems seem to be working so
far, and they do offer tremendous cost savings.
Toxicity/Leaching/Taste: Depends on material, same as Galvanized Steel with Plastic
Membrane, p. 47.

Goat Bladders, Leather, Etc.

Animal skins have long been used to transport water. Leather vessels keep the water
cool by sweating through the walls.
Well into the dispiriting research on toxic leaching, I found an account from another
researcher who was so appalled by the threats that he was ready to go back to storing
water in goat bladders, like his ancestors. I have to admit that after reading countless
abstracts of studies about nasty chemicals from plastics, contaminated cements, etc. the
idea does have a certain appeal.
Toxicity/Leaching: In the case of leather, tanning chemicals may enter the water.
Taste: Most skins impart a taste.

A firm, well-drained footing is essential for long tank life, especially for large tanks.
These footing considerations apply to all tanks:
The earth under the tank should be well-compacted and free of large or sharp
rocks.
The surface drainage should be away from the tank in all directions (except for
some runoff harvesting tanks).
Tanks on benches cut into a slope should be resting entirely on undisturbed soil
(cut), not on tailings from the excavation (fill).
Steel tanks are usually set on a bed of gravel. This slows corrosion of the bottom of
the tank by keeping it dry underneath. The compacted soil under the gravel is ideally
sloped to one side (or all sidessee figure at right) so moisture is less likely to get under
the tank, softening the soil and condensing on the tank bottom. Coarse gravel is preferred, to promote drying air circulation under the tank.

48

Plastic or fiberglass tanks can be set directly on

firm, rock-free soil. If there are rocks, or the surface is
uneven, the floor of the tank can be protected with a thin
layer of compacted sand or pea gravel that won't wash
away. (Plastic isn't strong enough to bridge the large
gaps between coarse gravel.) For tanks which bear on
the footing with over 800 lbs/ft2 (3900 kg/in'), a concrete
footing with steel support stands is suggested to prevent
movement in wind or earthquakes.
The floors of ferrocement or concrete tanks can be
poured directly onto firm soil free of large rocks. If the
natural surface is too uneven, it can be smoothed with
the addition of a layer of sand.
The walls of a concrete tank should be buried at least
to the level of the floor inside the tank. This is to reduce
the chance that erosion will undercut the floor, possibly
leading it to crack.
Large roots under a tank could heave, possibly cracking the floor. If the roots can't be removed, they can be
covered over with a raised layer of gravel. Roots won't
grow into the gravel if it doesn't have water in it. If the
soil under the tank is disturbed, re-compact it well.
If the only available site has huge rocks or bedrock
under it, try to build entirely on the rock, otherwise
the difference between how the soil and rock compress
could crack the tank.
A community in Mexico built a 100,000 gal (380 m;)
cistern by sealing the space between vertical walls of
exposed bedrock with a rock wall and pouring a footing
on the earth between. This cistern has always leaked,
and the community spent as much time and money
trying to seal it as to build it in the first place. I suspect
that the problem is that the earth under the tank moves
slightly as 400 tons of water press down on it and then
are removed, while the bedrock holds still.
If your footing is perfectly smooth and stable, the
load on the tank floor will be insignificant. If it is not,
the resulting strain can crack the floor and walls. (For
an explanation of the radically different ways flexible
and stiff tank floors of different shapes behave structurally, see p. 91,112.)
Plastic, fiberglass, ferrocement, or concrete tanks
can be partially buried. The tank should be capable of
withstanding the press of wet soil from outside in without collapsing, and should be leak-free so water moving
through the soil does not contaminate it.
1 would hesitate to bury a mortared rock tank. There
is a strong likelihood that roots will find some crevice
in the masonry, work their way through it to the water
inside, and possibly damage the tank as the roots grow
in thickness.
An old concrete slab for a redwood tank, retrofitted with railroad ties and gravel cover to receive a bolted galvanized steei
tank (sheets at right). The tongue going into the far side of
the gravel is to provide a clear path for the drain line.

49

FIGURE 1 3 : TANK FOOTINGS

FOOTING FOR GALVANIZED WATER TANK

Gravel
%" to l-Vz".
6" or more thick
layer

Drain on downhill side

Tank tilted slightly
toward drain

Large rocks or railroad ties

To hold gravel in place

FOOTING FOR PLASTIC OR FIBERGLASS TANK

Tank may be buried
A foot or two below grade
(deeper could collapse the

tank)
Drain on downhill side
Tank tilted slightly
towards it
^

Drainage
Away from

tank

Native soil
Sand or pea
Compact
Or gravel
and
rock-free
Over rocky soil

FOOTING FOR FERROCEMENT OR CONCRETE TANK

Tank may be burled more deeply
If you are confident that
water
won't leak into tank

Compacted
fill

Edges of tank slightly buried

To reduce the chance
that
erosion will undercut the floor
and leave it
unsupported

Native soil,
Undisturbed,
compacted.
Optionally
smoothed
with a thin layer of sand

Roofs can be structurally integrated with the walls, or a separate structure

set on top.
nfijjj^Hfigp*
In the case of a separate structure, good attention must be paid to details of
critter-proofing and excluding roof runoff at the roof-to-wall interface.
In the case of a structurally integrated roof, it can be advantageous to make
the roof-to-wall joint continuous and pressure-tight, so the space under the
roof can fill with water. This enables the tank to store significantly more water.
An integrated, pressure-tight roof will typically be of "unibody" material
such as plastic or ferrocement, and in a conical or dome shape.
For tanks more than 15' or so in diameter, a central pillar of steel-reinforced
concrete or a steel pipe can be added to help support the roof. This can be a
Koof supports in a
convenient place to add an integral ladder.
50,000 gai (190 m3)
Domed roofs are most structurally efficient. However, if you intend to make tl"ie
bolted steel galvanized
roof of concrete, wood, or steel, a flat roof will be much easier to build or support with
tank.
straight materials like wooden beams. Conical, hexagonal, or octagonal roofs are <compromises that offer advantages of both flat and domed roofs.
(See Appendix B for more information on the structural properties of different
shapes.)
Roofs made with wooden trusses and conventional roofing (like a house roof) can be
cheaper and easier to make for big tanks. They have the disadvantage that they a:'{ all
but impossible to seal against spiders and whatnot.
Note for galvanized sheet steel roofs on square or rectangular tanks: It is easier to slighitly
adjust the dimensions of the tank so the sheets neatly cover it (e.g., "5 sheets wide by 1.5 siheets
long"). This helps to minimize the amount of cutting, which is a relatively difficult task. I:or
multi-sided tanks, this is more difficult, but should still be kept in mind.16

Water-Harvesting Roof
If your tank is for harvested rainwater, why not harvest the rainwater from the roof
of the cistern as well? This is easiest with a cement tank into which rainwater harvesting
"wings" can easily be incorporatedsee large photo on front cover, top left photo on p.
57. The latter has 2' (60 cm) "wings" which increase catchment from its own roof about
40%. With 60" (1.5 m) of rainfall a year, this 13,000 gal (50 r) tank will catch enough
rainfall in an average year to almost fill it oncea significant contribution. The cistern
roof is domed. The wings spring back up from the low point at the rim of the dome.
The resulting channel slopes to a low point, where there is both a drain and an inlet into
the cistern, with movable plugs. There is a photo of this cistern from below in Rock and
Mortar, p. 43. The bottom photo on p. 43 shows a cistern which fills entirely from water
harvested from its own roofin a near desert at that. There is more on water harvesting
roofs in our book Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff Management.3

Figure 14 (right) summarizes typical costs for different size tanks. For all materials,
cost per gallon drops steeply at first, then less dramatically as tank size increases.

Really Cheap Storage

If economy is an overriding consideration, here are some suggestions for really cheap
storage:
Salvage 30 or 55 gal drumsCan often be scrounged for little or nothing. The bungs
often have W pipe threads, facilitating attachment of inexpensive plumbing, for example, small diameter polyethylene tubing. Drums can also be drilled, tapped, threaded,
or fitted with bulkhead fittings to make inlets and outlets in any position.

50

 Tote binsUsed for palletized, bulk transport of liquids. They can be made into
passable small tanks, if they've contained something non-hazardous. They are usually 275 gal (1 vr) HDPE containers.
Aboveground swimming poolsThe cheapest, funkiest storage going. Not a
longterm solution, but you can't beat the cost. The plastic walls are usually PVC.
PondsCan be relatively inexpensive for large volumes of water.
AquifersUsually don't cost anything and can store vast amounts of water.

Free, salvage 275 gal

(1 mb) tote bin. It's
roughly cubical and
about
chest-high.

Suburban water storage technology

transfers readily to backwoods pot growers and
shoestring
settlers,

FIGURE 1 4 : COST PER GALLON FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF STORAGE AND VOLUME
Capacity (in1)
JfJiV

rr'"

(2005 dollars; some costs have risen steeply)

51

IOC'

rtT 1

Many, if not most, water tanks are installed with little or no regulator involvement,
but rules and enforcement can vary quite a bit depending on where you are. You'll need
to inquire locally to find out what you'll be subject to.
Water storage may be subject to zoning, building department, fire department, and
health department rules. If you have a homeowners' association, it may regulate water
tanks, perhaps just because they are a structure. Your insurance company may have rules
or incentives relating to water storage as a fire safety resource, a flooding hazard, or
simply as another asset to insure.
Some of the rules you may encounter will be consistent with your own interests, and
some will run counter to them. You may run into rules concerning:

Zoning
You may or may not be allowed to build a water tank within the building setbacks
from your property linesthe zoning department can tell you.

Architectural Guidelines
In some neighborhoods, rules may prohibit aboveground tanks. A beautiful
ferrocement tank with an attractive shape and color, or one that looks just like a boulder,
may be able to overcome anti-tank prejudice.

Building Department
It will generally be the building department that enforces plumbing code requirements about pipe sizes, materials, placement, etc. Tanks over a certain size may require a
permit5,000 gal/18.9 m3 in our county. Large, constructed tanks may require a permit
with an engineer's stamp on the structural plans. Some of the tank-specific requirements
we've heard of:
Lockable lid To guard against malicious contamination and drowning hazard.
Sealing lid To guard against entry of roof runoff and creatures.
OverflowWith mosquito trap.
Soil reportFor the structural soundness of the soil that supports the tank.

Fire Department
The fire department may require that a hydrant be attached to the tank, with a
certain-sized connection (4" in our area). They may require a "set-aside" or reserve of a
specific size (2,000 gal/ 9.5 m3 in our area) that can only be accessed via their hydrant
not a bad idea, if you want them to be able to save your house. This can be accomplished
by putting the hydrant outlet at the bottom and the domestic supply outlet higher up.

Health Department
The health department may have their own rules, or defer to the building department. The vector control department may want to ensure that your water storage does
not breed mosquitoes.

It is easy to get so engrossed in the operation of the system as intended that it doesn't
occur to anyone that the water tank also works as, for instance, a child trap. Fulfilling
legal requirements (above) may help reduce some hazards, but you should also take a

52

direct look at hazard reduction.

(Note: This section covers ways that stored water can harm things. Ways that things can harm
stored water are covered under Protecting Stored Water, p. 77.)

Drowning
Drowning can be a real hazard with stored water, primarily for children. The two
strategies to reduce drowning hazard are:
Limit access to the water, e.g., with a fence, locked access hatch, or removable outside
ladder.
Provide an easy way out of the water, e.g., a built-in ladder on the inside of the tank,
or steps on the sides of a reservoir.
A water tank with an access hatch in the middle and no built-in ladder is especially
hazardous. Even a resourceful adult might drown before they could figure a way out of
the tank. At least leave a knotted rope dangling down.

Structural Collapse
What will happen if the water tank topples? Could a water tower
fall over and squash a house? Maybe it should be a bit farther away.
Could an earthquake or landslide tip a tank off of its pad on a steep
hillside, with the result that it steamrolls over houses below?
The engineering of water tanks is not intuitively obvious. The
structural loading per unit of area is usually lower than people think,
and the total loading higher than people think. (See also Appendix B,
Structures, p. 91, and Protecting Stored Water, p. 77.)

Flooding
What will happen to the water if a tank or pipes break? If the answer is "not much,"
then you don't need to dwell on it. If a life-threatening situation might result (like the
one described on p. 91), safety may be the main design factor.

Pestilence
Biological hazards in stored water should be minimal or nonexistent with good storage design and if the water was clean in the first place. (See How Water Quality Changes
in Storage, p. 9.)

Toxic Contamination
Assuming there are no toxins in the incoming water, the route for toxins to get into
stored water is by leaching from the storage vessel or plumbing. Toxins from outside can
also permeate through the walls of plastic containers. Leaching is discussed in general in
How Water Quality Changes in Storage. Leaching hazards from various materials are '
discussed in Table 7: Materials, p. 40, and in more depth in Appendix C. Permeation is
discussed on p. 78. There is a bunch more info on this issue in Water Storage Extras. 6

Liability Exposure
If your water system incorporates a hazard that you should have been aware of, or
if your water storage doesn't meet legal standards, you could be sued if someone or
something comes to harm as a result. Good design will minimize the chance of this happening, or your being liable if it does.

53

Tank ruin in the field

where I played as a
kid. I don't know what
did this tank in, but it
makes qood lizard habitat now.

iter Tanks for Special Applications

Pressure Tanks
Pressure tanks are an alternative to an elevated tank to provide pressure. They
typically have a pressure switch that controls the pump that pressurizes them, an air
bladder that stores enough pressure to push out a third or so of the volume of the
tank before the pump has to switch back on, and an air valve to adjust the air pressure. Pressure tanks are usually small30-50 gal (75-190 L). Their advantage is that
they are far less expensive than an elevated tank and the piping to it.
Their disadvantage is that they provide little water security because when the
power goes out, there is almost zero reserve. If you can, situate the main tank higher
than the water use points, so that water will still flow, without power, albeit at low
pressure.
As a last resort, you can put in a really big, expensive pressure tank to get more
reserve (see photo, p. 30).

Break Pressure Tanks

These aren't for storage, though they do have "tank" in the name. Break pressure
tanks provide an air gap that releases the contained pressure in a pipe. They then funnel the water into another run of pipe. Strategically placed, these tanks can reduce the
amount of expensive, pressure-resistant pipe in a system. A break pressure tank has
an inlet line, provision for venting and access, and an outlet. They are usually small,
accommodating just a momenf s flow.

Pressure tank and

pressure pump.

Hot Water Storage

Some of the same techniques described under Freeze Protection (p. 73) can be used
to make a tank that holds warm or hot water. Hot water tanks and some solar water
heaters use the "thermos" effect to great advantagea high vacuum between walls of a
glass pressure vessel prevents heat loss by convection or conduction, and a silver coating
reflects radiant heat loss.
Hot spring water is often highly corrosive, and especially resistant materials may be
required for plumbing. One hot spring found CPVC to be the most resistant material; for
another, only copper pipe with high-temperature silver solder would hold up.

Tanks for Transporting Water

For transport, the ideal water container would be strong and lightweight, would resist
sunlight, and would neither leach nor slough off nasty stuff into the water. In a stationary tank, great sheets of rust that peel off just harmlessly settle to the bottom, but in a
mobile tank, the water sloshes and stirs everything up. Stainless steel is ideal, followed
by polyethylene.

Transport of water from a spring in Cuba.

Stainless steel water tank/bottle truck proposed for

distribution of inexpensive, bulk drinking water refills for
an Indian village in MexicoF

54

This section covers the features common to almost all water tanks. There is more
information on optional features in Chapter 5. (Inlets in general are covered here, while
you'll find Inlet Float Valves there.)
FIGURE 1 5 : COMMON FEATURES OF W A T E R TANKS

An inlet is where water flows into your tank. The preferred practice is for each water
source to have a separate inlet. The type of water source determines where on the tank
your inlet needs to be located.
If the water source is a well, or otherwise below the tank, the inlet must have an air
gap to the surface of the water, and must be a pipe diameter above the highest level the
water can reach when the overflow is flowing at full capacity. This is to avoid siphoning
tank water in reverse through the inlet line, possibly contaminating the well (see Figure
19, p. 62). The inlet should be as high in the tank as possible so that the overflow can be
high. The spill point (lowest point) of the overflow, in turn, determines the maximum
useful storage capacity of the tank. A high inlet/overflow will help get your money's
worth out of the tank capacity.
If the water source is gravity-flow water, the inlet can be just about anywhere. The
tank water can't flow back uphill to contaminate the source. An irilet at the top is convenient for installation of an inlet float valve to automatically shut off the incoming water
when the tank is full (see p. 66). An inlet near the bottom (with a diffuser) can facilitate
settling (see p. 68).

55

Separate inlets from

two wells, and an overflow all the way at the
top of a riveted, corrugated galvanized tank.

Caution: If both a well and a gravity flow supply a tank, the overflow must be high enough
capacity to prevent gravity-flow water at peak flow from raising the tank level to where it drains
into the well. The check valve at the bottom of the line in the well provides some protection
against backflow, but since these commonly leak it is not good design practice to rely on
them for this function.
There should be shutoff valves, unions, bypasses, or some other way to shut off or
divert the water supply to all inlets so you can service the tank.

Coupling weld detail.

Note the use of a brass
nipple (won't rust solid
to tank threads) and
galvanizing paint over
the coupling and weld.

Well Inlets, welded into the top of a galvanized tank. This inlet position enables the
overflow to be at the top of the tank wall and
still have no chance of
cross-contamination
(see p. 62).

Outlet
The outlet is the pipe through which you get water out of your tank. It should be as
close to the bottom of the tank as possible without being so low that it sucks the settled
muck off the bottom. This arrangement will maximize the useful storage capacity, helping
you get your money's worth out of the tank.
You can create an emergency reserve (e.g., for fire) by installing a low outlet for the
reserve, and a mid-level outlet for ordinary use.
There should be a shutoff valve on the outlet, to stop the flow of water in case of a massive leak, and so you can work on the system.
Storage in non-industrialized countries often doesn't have an outlet (or drain). This simplifies construction and all but eliminates the chance of catastrophic water loss. The water
is taken out with a hand-held container, a bucket on a rope, or a pump.

There must be provision for getting inside the tank for inspection and cleaning. In
the case of a tank that is so small that your arm can reach from top to bottom, it is sufficient
to have an arm-sized opening. Otherwise, you need an opening of about 2' (60 cm). For tall
tanks, it is a convenience and safety measure to have a built-in ladder, at least
on the inside. Rungs or stepping-stones should be spaced 1' apart vertically
(30 cm). An integral inside ladder eliminates the possibility of introducing
contamination along with a portable ladder.
It is also convenient to have a pressure-tight service access door at ground
level, which can be opened for construction and major service, to save the
effort of climbing up the outside and down the inside.
If the tank (or a diversion) receives uncontrolled surface runoff, a manhole
at the bottom can be a godsend for cleaning out truckloads of accumulated
soil, rocks, and vegetation.

56

This 6" outlet on a

50,000 gal (190 m*)
bolted galvanized tank
is a foot above the
bottom. The spring
water feeding the tank
has a large amount
of sediment, and this
design allows for a
generous layer of it to
accumulate before the
high flow through the
6" pipe will vacuum it
up off the bottom and
into the distribution
system.

Same tank inside. A ladder

could have been
incorporated in
the central pillar,
for safety and to
avoid the hassle
of feeding an
extension
ladder
into the tank.

Placing the service access at the conical peak

of this 13,000 gal (50 m") ferrocement
tank
allows several thousand gallons more water to
fit before it overflows out the
access.

Roof
manhole
Ladder

Ladder first
section removed
and locked
Floor
manhole
The access on this 50,000 gal (190 m?-~)
galvanized/poly bag'tank is from the top
only, as a perforation of this size of the
liner would not be a good idea. Attempting
to fill the 3,000 gal (30 rrr) or so of space
under the lightweight conical roof with water would be equally inadvisable.

Ladder made of Vz", epoxy-coated,

grade-60 rebar integrated in a
ferrocement water tank. This choice of
rebar reduces the two main problems
with rebar ladders: bent steps
(grade
60 is half again as strong as
standard
grade-40 rebar) and rusting away,
which can render the ladder unsafe as
well as impact the structural
integrity
of the tank wall.

57

The access
manhole at the
bottom of a
20' (6 m) tall
tank helps a
lot for assembly, cleaning,
and service. For
access when
the tank is full,
there is a permanent ladder
to a manhole
at the top.
A removable
ladder section is locked
elsewhere to
discourage
unauthorized
access.

The drain is how you get the sludge, the last of the water,
and the wash water from cleaning out of your tank. The practical consequences of a well-drained tank are:
a tank that is cleaned much more frequently and perfectly
by happier cleaners, leading to:
cleaner water at the tap, especially when tank levels are low
and the amount of muck entering the tank is high

The drain is the most neglected area of conventional tank design. We're going to provide many pages of information here to fill the void. What will happen if you ignore the
drain issue? If your water is sediment-free, not much. If your water contains sediment,
however, you'll be happy you took the trouble to learn about drains.

Tanks with No Drain

The classic tank design leaves the drain out entirely, so the outlet doubles as the drain.
This brings such negative consequences as:
When the level of settled sludge reaches the level of the outlet, it will suck
sludge out into the pipes.
When the water level is low, water falling from the inlet will stir up the
sludge, occasionally yielding a concentrated sludge brew at the taps.
Draining the tank completely for cleaning is an extremely tedious process
using buckets, shovels, and finally sponges.
There isn't an easy way to get water from washing the inside of the tank out.
Bottom line: the tank doesn't get cleaned often or well.

A drain retrofit using

a 4" galvanized ninety.
Since it was welded to
the tank floor before
assembly, there was
no rubber gasket to
worry about frying, and
it could go right at the
edge by the wall.

All Stirred Up
A remote Coast Guard station in Cuba put my family
up for a few nights. The only
water was trucked in from
many miles away, but there
was no gas for the water
truck. On the second day we
ran out of water. The elevated
water tank wasn't actually
empty, it was just down to
the level of the rusty muck in
the bottom, a brew so thick
and noxious that it wasn't
possible to drink even when
that was all there was.

What do tank manufacturers think? That their clients have totally crud-free
water? Don't mind sucking sludge into their pipes? Have nothing better to do
than remove a vast puddle of mucky water one sponge full at a time?
The 50,000 gal (190 in'), bolted, galvanized steel tank at right had no drain.
The lowest outlet left more than ankle-deep sludge water on the bottomseveral
truckloads. It was an all-day affair with several muck-covered volunteers toting
brooms, buckets, shovels, and sponges to get it halfway clean. Each successive
rinse was an agonizing effort, and was indiscernibly cleaner than the last. Time
and energy invariably ran out before the sludge did.
We partially remedied this sorry state by welding a 4" drain flush under the
floor (photos and figure at right). This solved the problem of getting most of the sludge
and water out. However, the absence of a slope to the floor still left the last little bit an
exercise in frustration. You'd sweep a puddle toward the drain, and while the drain
would intercept a narrow swath of the current, the rest of the water would just swoosh
past and curve around the tank to the other side.
If these drainage problems had been anticipated in the original installation, we could
have welded the drain right at the edge (before the rubber gasket was in placesee
photo above), then installed the tank ever so slightly tilted, with the drain at the low
spot. A tilt of Vi% or 1% would be hardly noticeable, but would give tank-cleaners a huge
edge; they could feed rinse water from the inlet (at the high side, of course) and sweep
the increasingly clean water toward the drain at the low point.
This bit of tilt also could squeeze in another inch or so (a few hundred bucks' worth)
of water level, by making more room to install the overflow at the high point.

58

FIGURE 1 6 : DRAIN RETROFIT F O R STEEL T A N K

VERTICAL SECTION VIEW

Whole tank tilted

1% toward drain

Weld assembly

to

Bolted tank joint

Don't weld too close if it has a
rubber seal, keep cool with water

tank

Nipple
With chisel scores to give purchase
for concrete to grip against
torque
Oram cap

Gravel

r^-o
Ninety
Welded to flange.
Thick, wide flange
helps with draining
and
strength
Concrete torque

block

Keeps pipe wrench torque on

cap from tearing weld off

The whole assembly

was then welded to
the bottom of the old,
assembled tank from
the inside.

Drain channel
Concrete tongue prevents

Welded dram from the

outside, ready for plug
and concrete work.

drain

The completed drain was stoppered with a

4" plug (a cap would he better.) The concrete
around the drain takes the pipe wrench
torque from removing the plug, so the drain
doesn't twist and tear out of the bottom of
the tank.

Drain Location and Orientation

Some tanks come with a horizontal drainpipe at floor level. The capacity of such a
drain is very low when the tank is empty. A big drain with a thin puddle of water on the
floor has only a tiny part of its cross-section wet, so it can drain only a trickle of water.
What this means is, when you go to clean a tank, a wide, puddle will deepen until
enough of the cross- section of the drain is wetted that it can accommodate the rinse flow.
Without a sump, the drain flows slower and slower the lower the water level gets, and
rinsing is still an exasperating operation.

59

Drain with Sump

A sumpa depression around the drainincreases the
drain's low-water flow capacity tremendously, and provides a
place for sludge to "catch" when cleaning a wide, gently sloped
floor. When I design a water tank to be built from scratch, I make
a distinctly sloped floor (1-2% or more), with a sump and drain
at the lowest point. I've heard from other tank makers that a
flat floor with a sump works very well for drainage, and this is
clearly easier to make (Figure 18, at right).
To clean a tank with a sloped floor, sump, and drain, you just
open the drain and turn the inlet on. Inside the tank, fill buckets
from the inlet and splash water on the roof, walls, and sloped
floor, then sweep them off, then rinse with more water. In an hour
one person can clean a large tank almost perfectly, from start to
finish.

New outlet,
WmBmerSzo.
Former outlet/
drain, now drain,
only
Wiv drain sump

Plastic Tank Drain Retrofit

In Masonry in and over Plastic (p. 47), we described
the many benefits of combining masonry and plastic.
You can achieve easy cleaning and cleaner outlet water
from a plastic tank by fixing the combined outlet/drain
problem.
Simply put the tank where you want it for life, then
pour a sloped concrete floor inside, as per the picture at
left and drawing below.

This welded steel tank

has settled onto fresh
fill underneath, leaving it
quite tilted. It has been
this way for years and
is working fine. This suggests that 1) a modest
amount of intentional
tilt won't hurt, and 2)
you should always put
the drain on the downhill
side, especially if you've
got fill under your tank,
or it may not be at the
low point for long.

The water in this community drinking water tank in Mexico was

forming a white, floccuient precipitate, apparently caused by
sunlight coming through the black tank walls. The outlet, which
doubled as the drain, was an inch from the bottom. It sucked
unsightly crud out into people's bottles, yet did not allow for
cleaning. Adding a sloped floor, drain sump, clean outlet, and
plastering outside solved both problems.

FIGURE 1 7 : RETROFIT OF PLASTIC T A N K WITH A SLOPED FLOOR, SUMP, AND DEDICATED D R A I N .

SECTION V I E W

Bulkhead fitting:
A fitting that can be
inserted in a hole in the
wall or floor of a tank,
which has rubber washers on each side and a
nut to tighten them for
a leak-free
connection

New outlet

Piaster
and
chicken
wire^

Through from bulkhead

fitting installed
just

Plastic
tank -

above max floor

height

New concrete floor

1-2% slope, mirror
smooth

New drain

60

sump

Capped drain
A combined
outlet/drain
before
retrofit

FIGURE 1 8 : DRAIN OPTIONS

Standard

ineffective

Sloped

F l a t floor w/ eump

drain

floor

Outlet pipes 1% slope min,

2% ideal

Sloped

floor w! sump

Slope to center

Dished and sloped

drain

p v c OUTLET/DRAIN

BRASS OR GALVANIZED OUTLET/DRAIN

-Tee

Clean

Provides major tooth

Wye

floor

water

Saw

Min water line,

cuts

In coupling to
add "tooth"

Outlet valve

.
Outlet

Prevents sludge from

entering system in
normal use, remove
for cleaning

5
Impermeable

tongue

Prevents erosion from

undercutting tank

Main shutoff

extension

Coupling (unglued)

Receives outlet
extension

]
I

valve

Normally open, shut

for cleaning

Threaded cap
Pen for cleaning

LOW TECH DRAIN AND OUTLET

DEDICATED DRAIN: BRASS OR GALVANIZED STEEL

SeaI

Against leaks with

Outlet valve

Chisel grooves and

ovaiize to add "tooth"

f>

saw

grooves-

Outlet screen or bentonite rings Over saw^

v ,
slgttedhose
Ktegyyy-

-j

Drain

Brass or galvanized nipple

t> ' ; O
: ,"<i.'' :."<. " :."<!.

j'

Round hole in

Flush joint between pipe end

to mortar does not catch crud

-iv
'I
masonry

Form with stick or pipekeep

rotating as cement hardens

61

3
Cork

Outlet

(
HOPE hose
\ cast into
\ masonry

Of yucca
stalk or
local
equivalent

Drain Components
The drain should always be bigger than you think. With ankle-deep water
pressurizing a pipe, the flow rate is very low. Two pipe sizes bigger than the inlet is
about right. That is, a 4" drain for a tank with a 2" supply, 2" for a 1" supply.
The drain line can be capped instead of valved, since it isn't used often, and
usually the drain won't have water gushing out any more when it is time to put
the cap back on. A cap is better than a plug because it goes onto male outlet threads
which won't catch crud, whereas a plug fits into female threads that are apt to fill
with sand. A ball valve will allow for ease of opening and closing; a removable cap
will save you money. If your context is rustic and you really need to save money,
the flower stalks of yucca cacti make awesome plugsgiant corks that can take several feet of pressure (Figure 18, preceding page, bottom right).

This volunteer-built
wilderness hot spring
at Big Caliente has
something every such
pool should: a drain.
Unscrew the cap, sweep
out the pool, and refill
it with dean water.
The only refinements
I'd suggest are a sump
and a bigger drainpipe.
This pipe is 1.5"-l'd have
gone with 2" for faster,
less dog-prone draining.

Like the overflow in your bathtub, the overflow in a tank establishes the maximum water level, and carries away excess water. The overflow should be located
as high as possible while leaving room for an air gap between the maximum water
level (the level the water rises to when it is overflowing actively) and the inlet of any
well connected to the tank (see Inlet, p. 55).
The overflow should be big enough to accommodate the full flow from all inlets.
Usually this means it needs to be bigger than the inlets. With just a little pressure
to push the water through, a 4" overflow might be needed to accommodate all the
water gushing from a 2" high-pressure inlet.
The sizing of the overflow depends a lot on what happens if its capacity is exceeded. If water will just flow harmlessly out the vents or access hatch, that's no big
deal. But if an overflow is the only way to relieve pressure and you don't have one
or it clogs, you could end up pressurizing your whole tank as in Figure 32: Pressure
Depends on Water Depth Alone (p. 91), with the result that the tank blows up.
The overflow is a great opportunity to be rid of stuff floating on the surface of the
water. Why dump clean water when you can be rid of dirty water instead? To make
the most of this opportunity, orient the overflow opening in the same plane as the
water surface (see Figure 19, below).
The floating stuff rides on the top layer of water molecules, a layer that holds
together like a tablecloth as it is pulled out the overflow. With a large-diameter,
horizontal overflow, less water comes from deeper in the column, so you're dumping
the dirtier surface water. Also, with this overflow geometry, the surface sheet gets
tugged on more, pulling floating crud out of the farthest reaches of the tank.

FIGURE 1 9 : OVERFLOW AND INLET HEIGFTT SPECIFICATIONS

Top of inlet
Max dynamic

water

level

r~Cut
\

here

make

to

Inlet in roof

funnel
Top of
inlet

Inlet in
wall

space
wasted
Pumps dirty
and clean water

"Wasted space" is tank volume

To reduce wasted
space:
1.
2.
3.

Pumps clean
water only

Pumps mostly
surface water

Pumps dirty
water only

surface

Pumps
surface

above the spill point of overflow. You've paid to enclose this space, but it stores
Reduce distance between top of inlet and high point of ceiling
Reduce distance between max dynamic water level and top of inlet
Reduce difference between overflow spill point and dynamic water level

62

dirty
water only

air, not water.

If the overflow opening is at a right angle to the water surface, a substantial

fraction of the flow is drawn from lower in the water column, and you'll mostly
be dumping clean water. If you install the overflow with its opening entirely under
the surface, it will draw only from the mid-water column, leaving a surface covered
with dust, leaves, and mosquito larvae.
If you use a large, horizontal overflow, you can place it slightly higher in the
tank. An extra 2" of water depth in a tank 20' in diameter equates to 400 gal more
storage. This is worth at least $700, quite a bit more than the cost of the extra effort
and materials.
The overflow should not have a shutoff valve on it.

12" (50 cm) overflow line on

a 1.5 million gal, (5700 m )
bolted steel tank.

A brass swing check valve, suitable for

clog-resistant
critter proofing of an
overflow line. The swing check valve should
always be installed in the overflow line in a
horizontal position, so it swings shut; and
some distance below the maximum water
level, so the (slight) pressure needed to
operate the valve doesn't cause the water
level in the tank to back up higher.

Septic tank outlets have a tee on

them, which specifically
prevents
floating solids from flowing out the
outlet and into the leachfield. Pop
off the tee, and the water level won't
change, but instead of having a
several-inch-thick
layer of floating
solids, there will be open water... and a
clogged
leachfield.
The side of this tank
is rusted from water
that overflowed the
whole tank, prior to the
installation of the overflow line (pipe at left).

ExceptionsNow that you know all about

overflows...you may not even need one. If the
water source is above the tank, that itself protects it from contaminationan air gap below
the inlet is not needed. If the water source is not
expected to overflow extensively (for example,
if you have a float valve or pump switch which
normally shuts off the water supply when the
tank is full, or if the supply is at a pressure
which corresponds exactly to the maximum
water height in the tank), the access port or air
vent can double as the overflow, or the access
port can "triple" as access, air vent, and overflow.

'"Metric: 5 cm of depth in 6 m diameter tank adds 1.6 m3 of storage.

63

FIGURE 2 0 : CRITICAL OVERFLOW OF A RAINWATER CISTERN UNDER AN OFFICE

Swing check valve

4" FVC, installed
horizontally,
several
inches below spill point

t The max dynamic

water
a fraction of an inch higher than
the max static water level due
to width of overflow spillway

Overflow
spillway

Clean out sump

at low point
V

\
\

A 4" swing check valve shuts out

mosquitoes
and rats, yet opens
and allows the design maximum flow
of 30 gpm (115 iprn) to escape
(at
an instantaneous
rainfall rate of 5"
(13 cm) per hour).

A critical overflow on a 7,400 gal (2& mJ) rainwater cistern harvesting system. The rainwater is used for drinking, so critterproofing is critical. Moreover, If the overflow fails, rainwater would gush out of the tank access, over the hardwood floor, and through
almost every room of the house. I sized the overflow very generously. The wide, horizontal spillway ensures that the level won't rise
much under high overflow, while allowing the tank to hold a few cubic meters (several hundred gallons) more than if the spillway were
a 4" pipe.

Uncontrolled Overflow
^

u&sd to be here

This 20 ymr old, welded^

through almost the entire

circumference of the roofto-tank joint. I probably could have ripped the whole roof off with my hands.
The overflow caused further mischief on reaching the ground. An overflowcaused gully has grown from the nearby steep slope almost to the tank pad (at
right). Just beyond the photo to the left, the gully is head deep. If the overflow
continues unchecked, the whole tank will end up in the gully.

64

ALL points of ingress to the system should be critter-proofed. Not only mosquitoes
love water. Thirsty rats are particularly ingenious about getting into water tanks and
dying there. There's nothing like pulling pieces of dead rat out of your water lines to get
religion about the details of critter-proofing.
Block entrance points using mosquito net, welded wire mesh, closed valves, check
valves, water seals, or a forceful outward flow of water. Water seals (like the traps on
drain lines) will stop flying insects from getting in, but they won't stop rats. An overflow
critter-proofed with mesh can clog, causing pressure to build in the tank, possibly exploding it. If you have an overflow that is too critical to restrict with wire mesh, a swing
check valve is the answer (see Figure 20 on preceding page).

If air can't get out of the tank, water can't get in. There needs to be a way for air to
get in and out of the tank, one which is screened against insects and rodents getting
in, and doesn't admit much light (see Sunscreen and Shade, below).
The vent geometry should preclude runoff from the tank roof from entering. You
should generally only have as much venting as is needed to make way for the incoming water, which isn't much at all. If you have a huge airflow, you may lose a significant
amount of water to evaporation.

Guarter-inch welded wire

mesh over gutters is first
line of defense
against
rats crawling into this
rainwater harvesting system. A water seal downstream stops
mosquitoes.

Sunscreen and Siadfe

Sun plus water equals the base of a food chain. Almost all water
sources have enough trace concentrations of nutrients that if you put
them in the sun long enough, some algae will grow. Then something will
want to eat the algae, and so on...
Metal and masonry tanks completely block sunlight. Plastic tanks
should be black and/or indoors, buried, or covered, to prevent light from
getting in the water. (See Masonry in and over Plastic, p. 47.)
There is every advantage to keeping water cooler in the summer. You
can put the tank in the shade and paint the outside of it white, silver, or
an unobtrusive, light version of the local rock or vegetation color scheme.
This will lower water temperatures and thermal expansion/contraction
stresses in the above water portions of the tank. (Note: A black plastic tank
painted white will be both cool and dark inside. An unpigmented, cloudy white
plastic tank will quickly degrade and algae will grow vigorously inside.)

Critter-proof
service
access, air vent, and
backup overflow all in
one. Note that vents
around access
are
screened with 'A" hardware cloth over mosquito net.

65

In this chapter we go over various optional gadgets which can enhance the function
of your system.
Be aware, too, that there are a host of other possible options which we're not going to
get into (remote flow meters, automated injectors for treatment chemicals, online monitoring meters for turbidity, chlorine level, etc.).

iialet Mtteiv Filter, Saigis

If you want to optimize the use of a resource, measure it. Our water system
has two wells and a spring, each with a meter on the inlet, just before the water
tank. Each house that is connected to the water system has a meter. With regular
readings, these meters provide information valuable for the management of the
system, such as the amount of water capable of being produced by our wells
and spring in wet and dry seasons, consumption in wet and dry seasons, etc. My
next house is going to have a water meter set into the tile above the kitchen sink
to keep us continuously apprised of our water consumption.
An inline filter protects a meter or a float valve on the inlet. Place it just
before the meter or valve, to keep their mechanisms from clogging with chunks
of rust from the supply line.
Place an inline inlet filter just below the "breakaway" section of the line from
a creek direct systemthat is, just below the point where the line is threatened
with floodwaters. If the filter in the creek gets knocked off, this inline filter will
keep the whole line from filling with gravel.
Pressure gauges can tell you the level of
water in the tank remotely, the operating or static
pressures in supply lines, etc.

A float valve on the inlet is useful for shutting off the

flow from a gravity flow water supply when the tank is
full. This not only avoids the pointless removal of water
from nature, it will improve the quality of water in your
system. One water system I worked on didn't have a
float valve for years. Every rainfall, the springs would
flood and the inlet would gush muddy water full-blast
into the tank day and night. Most of the muck would
settle in the tank, while clean water poured out the
overflow.
Float valves automatically
shut
off the water when the tank fills.

Under some circumstances it is desirable to combine inlet and outlet functions in the
same line, through which the water flows both into and out of the tank. This is most advantageous with long lines. Instead of having two lines, you have just one, which splits
at the tank into inlet and outlet forks (see Figure 21).
An example of this application would be a gravity pressure tanka tank that water is
pumped up to, and from which it runs back down into the system. This is frequently the
function of water towers and they are often plumbed this way.
If the gravity tank is connected directly to a well (as in Figure 21), there is some trade-

66

SHiitToff valve'
(I tandlejremovcd to
preventytampenng)

Inlet hardware. Pressure gauge before

shutoff shows
static
pressure.
Pressure
gauge after
shutoff
shows dynamic pressure across filter, which
shows when it needs
service.

off in water security. If the well pump check valve leaks, the tank can drain back through
the leaking valve into the well. If the water in the tank happens to become contaminated
while the check valve is leaking, the well can get contaminated also. Discharging the well
into a storage tank at wellhead level, and pumping to a higher storage tank from there
can circumvent this issue, which can be legal as well as practical.

FIGURE 2 1 : INLET COMBINED WITH OUTLET

Pressure switch (optional)

At well pump can shut off pump when tank float valve
causing pressure to rise. (This saves a run of wire.)

Inlet Aerator
Aeration is the process of breaking water into fine droplets mixed with air. This creates a large surface area-to-volume ratio. Oxygen can readily dissolve into the water, and
gasses dissolved in the water can readily escape. Certain kinds of water quality problems
can be improved by aeration; for example, manganese and iron oxidize to a less objectionable form.28 Noxious gasses in the water, such as hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, can
also be driven off more rapidly by aeration.
If there is enough pressure, the inlet can be aerated by capping it with a sprinkler or
mister that thoroughly mixes the water with the air in the top headspace of the tank. If
there is little pressure, the water from the inlet can be broken into droplets by passage
over a tower of tiered screens or slats.
For aeration to be optimally effective, there needs to be enough ventilation to move
oxygen in and undesirable gasses out of the tank.

Inlet Diffuses to Imprew Settling

Turbidity (suspended solids) generally settles out with storage in tanks.
One community I worked with was faced with a tightening regulatory noose which
was requiring them to meet a very stringent turbidity standard for water from their
springs. (Less than 1 NTU, which equates to about 10' visibility).
We replumbed their two 5 0 , 0 0 0 gal (190 m3) storage tanks to reduce the spring water's
turbidity as much as possible. (See Figure 22, Inlet Diffuser, next page.) Instead of letting
the water level fluctuate in both tanks, I dedicated one as the spring water settling and
treatment tank. Before, the spring water was introduced at the top, with the hope that
the turbidity would settle out before reaching the outlet (also at the top). Instead, we ran
a new line from the inlet float valve down to a ring of pipe knee height from the bottom,
with finger-size holes drilled in it every few feet.
The water (and suspended solids) exit in a diffuse ring around the entire bottom of
the tank, then flow ever so slowly up the entire water column of the tank. Arranged
thusly, the suspended solids start almost at the bottom, where we want them to settle,
and would have to float up nearly 20' against the force of gravity to get to the outlet,
something they are unlikely to do.

67

shuts

Detail of s older joint to

oval float valve outlet.

FIGURE 2 2 : TANK OPTIONAL FEATURES: INLET DIFFUSER,

OUTLET FILTER, VARIABLE HEIGHT OUTLET

N(

INLET
FLOAT
VALVE

rJ

OUTLET FILTER
Mosquito net or
fine drilled holes

INLET DIFFUSER

The most water

that
can be lost with
variable outlet at this
setting

VARIABLE HEIGHT
OUTLET

Float valve with extension to

inlet diffuser (not visible) a t bottom of tank.

The outlet of the settling and treatment tank is almost at the same level as the overflow, so the tank is always full. Thus, there is never a low-level situation where the inlet
water is plunging through the air to violently stir the muck on the bottom. In terms of
storage, the system now provides an emergency reserve which can be accessed by opening a valve, and is secure against accidental loss from a catastrophic leak or unnoticed
supply interruption.

If there is reason to believe that something might come out of the tank which could
clog the lines or valves downstream, it is cheap insurance to have a screen over the outlet. A clog will be easier to deal with there than elsewhere in the system. If getting into
the tank to service it is too much hassle, you can use an inline filter just outside the tank.

If your water supply is so tight that accidentally draining your tank would be a
disaster, consider installing a variable height outlet. This is a flexible or hinged extension
to the outlet on the inside of the tank, which can be manually raised or lowered to track
just below the water level in the tank, so there isn't much water above the outlet. If there
is a leak or some other problem, the only water that is vulnerable to loss is the volume
between the surface and the level of the outlet. (See Figure 22, Variable Height Outlet.)
f

The water in a tank is generally cleanest about 6" (15 cm) from the top of the water.
You can take water from this level by extending the outlet on the inside of the tank with
a flexible line and float.

68

Flexible outlet
f\oat.

Or

FIGURE 2 3 : WATER HAMMER A I R CUSHION

WATER HAMMER

If you have a long water line

with a high rate of flow and
someone slams a ball valve shut
at the tank inlet, the moving
water column is like a battering
ram impacting a closed door.
The resulting pressure spike
can be many multiples of the
static pressure and can easily
blow the pipe up. To avoid this
scenario, you can:

EXAMPLES OF AIR CUSFHON LOCATION

- Hydro shutoff
air cushion
) 4' x 2.5" dia.
Tank shutoff
air cushion
3' x 2.5" dia.

Drain valve horizontal air cushion

(Water rushing from both sides) 10' x 4" dia.

use gate valves, which

are not possible to shut
suddenly
use high-pressure pipe
put big warning signs
on the valves in several
languages
install air cushions

AIR CUSHION

An air cushion is simply a

part of the plumbing that traps
enough air so that when the
water hammer pressure spike
hits it, it cushions the blow. You
can buy bladder-filled ones or
make your own (see Figure 23,
above). Put them in a place in
the system where they will be
self-draining when the system
is drained. Otherwise, they
will eventually fill with water,
reducing their effectiveness.

air
.compresses
Trapped air
rebounds

) Trapped air

FOW!
shut

Fast flowing

abruptly

water

It is reassuring to know how much water is in your tank, and convenient to

be able to determine this without having to climb to the top and look in.
There are several gadgets that can help you accomplish this:

Float
A float in the tank raises and lowers a weighted marker on the outside of the tank.
These common devices are simple and reliable, so long as the weight and float are
heavy enough to keep the rope or cable that connects them from sticking where it passes
through the tank (see Figure 24, Level Indicator, next page).
The marker can be positioned so that it can be seen from far away. Note that when
the marker is at the bottom of the tank, the water level is at the topthis takes a bit of
getting used to.

69

A bit of air
?ach time

lost

Drain valve
To purge water
from air chamber

FIGURE 2 4 : TANK OPTIONAL FEATURES: LEVEL INDICATOR, OZONATOR

Rope guide holder

Wood or cement-

Flared copper

tubing

Air Pressure Level Gauge

An air pressure level gauge uses a bulb to pump air into a tube immersed in the
water. When the tube is all the way full of air, the pressure of the column of water trying to push back into it can be read as water depth on an air pressure gauge. With the
line and gauge full of air (instead of water), there is nothing to freeze in cold climates.

Bought
float-type
level indicator.

Clear Tube
A clear tube that covers the same height span as the tank can be used to directly
read the water level. The tube can be marked with reference lines. The tube must be
either filled with chlorinated water, kept in the shade, or drained when not in use, or
it will grow algae and become difficult to read.

Remote Pressure Gauge

An ordinary water pressure gauge anywhere in a system can show the water level
in the supply storage tank, provided the water use at the moment isn't so high as to
cause a significant pressure drop in the line. You can get pressure gauges that read in
inches, or take an ordinary pressure gauge and add your own scale. The gauge will
do a more accurate job of showing the exact water level in tank if it has these features:
A big face4" (10 cm) is good.
A range which just encompasses the maximum pressureIf the
pressure with a full tank is 54 psi, a 60 psi gauge will give a better
reading than a 100 psi gauge.
High precision2% or better.

Air pressure gauge to

show tank water level.

Remote pressure gauge

Electronic Level Indicator

A bought electronic level indicator can give a remote reading
anywhere you can run wires or a radio signal.

Calculate Gallons Per Inch

All the gadgets above will give you readouts of water depth.
To translate this into water volume, you'll need to measure or
calculate the gallons per inch of water depth (or m3 per cm). You
can use our Water Tank Calculator6 to help calculate the volume. If
your tank is a shape that is too strange to calculate, empty or fill

70

Precision pressure gauge shows water level at a

tank 1,000' (300 m) away and 60' (20 m) higher
In elevation to an accuracy of 1" (2.5 cm). This
enables flow to be determined indirectly. From zero
flow to 200 gpm (1 m3 every 3 min) the water level
rises in the overflow channel (and thus the whole
pool) by about 4" (10 cm). The same gauge also
serves as the dynamic pressure gauge used to
check the flow adjustment to the
hydroelectric
wheel connected to the system.

it through a water meter, and make a mark at the water level that corresponds to each
increment of volume. Knowing how much water use (or production) is represented by a
given change in water level will sharpen your monitoring of the system.

Tiurej'. < >

Ozonators
Ozone is a great alternative to chlorine for disinfecting water. (See Hazardous
Disinfection Byproducts, p. 10, for reasons not to use chlorine.) The way ozone treatment
typically works is by generating ozone with UV lamps or corona discharge equipment,
then pumping it through a diffuser or diffusers in the tank, or injecting the ozone directly
into a tank feed line.
The water tanks are an integral part of such a treatment system. A tank full of water
saturated with dissolved ozone can handle spikes in the amount of incoming debris
and / or pathogens, whereas the low, steady output of the ozonator by itself could easily
be overwhelmed. (See photo at right and Figure 24, Ozonator.)

Drain Extension or Baffle

An unglued extension from the drain to a level above the sludge in the bottom of the
tank will enable the drain to be used as both drain and outlet. With the extension pipe
slipped in place, the water leaves the tank above muck levela clean outlet. Pull the
extension out, and the muck will suck out of the drain.
In the case of an outlet on the side of the tank, a baffle could deflect its suction upward, so it doesn't suck crud off the bottom of the tank. (See Figure 18: Drain Options.)

Outlet and @rfl@w Curves

Ozonators provide
sterilization with far
fewer environmental
and health side effects than chlorine. The
ozonators shown treat
water for about 30
homes30

FIGURE 2 5 : OUTLET CURVES

Sharp angles and transitions at an outlet or overflow

create turbulence that limits the peak flow. If you form
gently curved transitions that smoothly funnel the accelerating water flow into a narrower space, you can get
a higher peak flow. The ideal shape is like a graph of the
water speed; wider where the flow is just starting, narrowing as it speeds up, and then constant as it's made it up to
speed and into the pipe. There is a photo of a very successful curved overflow for a runoff diversion dam on p. 25
and drawings of flared overflows on p. 62 and 64.

TO LOWER TURBULENCE AND INCREASE CAPACITY

Pomp Controls,
The simplest pump control is to manually turn your pump on, and when you hear or
see water pouring out the overflow, shut it off.
You can install a float switch which will turn on your well pump automatically when
the water reaches a specified levelTurn it off again when the tank is full. The switch
can be hard-wired to the well pump, or connected via a radio transmitter.
An alternative pump control system uses a special float valve and a pressure
switchThe special float valve shuts off the inlet all at once when the tank is full.
Pumping against the closed valve, the pressure on the line will spike upward, and a
pressure switch at the pump turns it off.29 Encase the float switch in a Ziploc bag to
keep bugs out of ita common cause of failure.
A low-level alarm switchTurns on a light or an audible alarm when the water drops
below the specified level.

71

\_, X
7Q

The smoother the water

path, the less turbulence
and the more water can
flow out a given size outlet or overflow.

In a slow sand filter, the water passes through a layer of sand from top to bottom.
Treatment is biological and mechanical. Beneficial bacteria form a thick film on the surface, as well as a film over the interior sand particles. Suspended particles catch in this
layer, and pathogens are eaten by the beneficial microscopic organisms. A properly made
and managed sand filter has very high pathogen removal rates.
Slow sand filtration is a simple, inexpensive technology for treatment of water that
may have pathogens. 31 It is especially appropriate for rustic homes, villages, and small
communities that are required to use filtration to comply with new regulations. (See
Figure 30: Small Sand Filter, p. 86.)
Emergency storage and sand filtration can be combined in one big tank. If the peak
demand for filtered water is greater than the sand filter yield, then a separate tank is
needed to cover these peaks (this is usually the case). Flow rates in slow sand filters are
slow: V5-V3 gal per hour per ft2 of filter surface area (7-11 L per hour per m2).

There are plenty of reasons to have multiple tanksdifferent kinds of water, specialized treatment or settling functions in particular tanks, emergency water set-asides, or
simply that you bought one tank and then another. Each of these reasons, in each context,
will have its own optimal plumbing layout. Often, the optimal number of tanks is two, of
equal size. This can facilitate maintenance and give flexibility of configurations.
When using multiple tanks, the key to simplified management is to install them so
that the maximum water level in all tanks is the same. This reduces the redundancy
in inlets, outlets, and controls tremendously. (It may not be a problem to have the floors
of different tanks at different levels, provided the master tank has the lowest floorsee
Figure 26, opposite.)
At the extreme, one tank alone can have the master inlet and outlet, level indicators,
overflows, float valves, etc., with any number of other tanks plumbed to the bottom of
it with combined inlet/outlets. When the water level rises in the master tank, water will
flow to the others. When it drops, it will flow back. When the water reaches the overflow
in the master tank, the others will stop filling simply because the level in the master tank
stops rising. Besides the combined inlet/outlet at the bottom, each "slave" tank only
needs an access, drain, and screened vent.

Connecting
to a second
tank with a
maximum
water level a
foot lower resulted in the
loss of 5,400
gal of useful
capacity
thousands of
dollars worth
in the first
tank (at right), as the overflow had to b e lowered to avoid having to duplicate all level-regulation
hardware.

72

A tank farm for a rainwater harvesting system

5an Juan Island, Washington State. The tanks
connected in series at the bottom, so they all
and fall at the same level, and the water does
stagnate.

on
are
rise
not

FIGURE 2 6 : PLUMBING OPTIONS FOR MULTIPLE TANKS

GOOD FOR

PLUMBING OPTIONS
Inlet float valve regulates levels in both tanks
\
Overflow ____

=7

Adding more
storage
simply and
cheaply

Check
valve^

JEJ
Out

RELATIVE HEIGHT
REQUIREMENTS

Tops on level

Drain
Master
All controls and features

Inlet float valve regulates

Slave
Combined in/outlet,
drain only

levels in both

Higher floor

ok-

access,

tanks

Tops on level
Settling
more solids
Lower level floor

ok-

In series, equal levels

'Inlet float

valve regulates

max level in both

tanks

- Overflow higher than

Treatment
tank/
settling
tank/
emergency
reserve

Emergency

connection
Secure
emergency
reserve,
settling out
most
solids,
ozone
treatment

out
Hydrant

In series, reserve, and

storage

Tops on level

Lower level floor

Valve
(normally shut)
or check valve

Water has high specific heat. It absorbs great quantities of heat and stores it for a long
time. It reacts slowly to temperature variations. It takes a lot of time and energy to heat
water, and it must lose a lot of heat energy before it freezes. In climates with wide daily
temperature swings, a tank of water can keep itself from freezing by virtue of its thermal
mass alone.
Besides the obvious benefits of keeping water from freezing solid, there can be an
advantage to keeping stored water warm. If the water is to be used indoors, warmer
incoming water reduces the heating load for both the building and the hot water heater.
Following is an inventory of methods to provide freeze protection for stored water
Some can be mixed and matched; others are mutually exclusive. As always, the passive
methods (listed first) are cheaper and more reliable. For really extreme cold, you will
want to research other techniques. 32

73

ok-

 Place the tank in a warm microclimateExposed to the southwest (to heat it up before nightfall), with windbreak and shelter to the north.
Bury the inlet and outlet plumbing below the frost lineAlong with the bottom
couple feet of the tank (see photos, below).
Position inlet and outlet plumbing on the sunny, sheltered side of the tankAnd
insulate it, especially above the earth's surface. You can ensure circulation by extending
inlet or outlet to the opposite side of the tank, so new water moves through the whole
tank.
Maintain sufficient flow through the system to keep the water from freezingThe
turnover of incoming water from a spring or well may not seem warm for swimming,
but in freezing conditions it is warmer than the water in the tank.
Insulate the tankWith strawbales, sawdust, or, if underground, pumice, perlite, vermiculite, or blue foam foundation insulation.
Increase solar gainOf an exposed tank by painting the south side black.
Cover the south side of the tank with glassTo make it a low-temperature solar
heater.
Shield the tank with high thermal mass materialSuch as stone, brick, or adobe
(most effective in climates with large daily swings in temperature).
Bury the tank, or build a berm (earth mound) around itTo take advantage of heat
and insulation from the earth.
Use a thermostatically controlled valve or switch to set water circulatingWhen the
temperature drops below a set point, or use a recirculating pump to continuously circulate water through the system.
Draw heat out of the earthBy circulating water from an aboveground tank into a
buried tank or pipe, and sending it back to the tank.
Use an in-tank electric immersion heater.
Place the tank in an enclosed and/or heated space.
Drain the vulnerable parts or the entire system for the winter.

The floors of these ordinary HDPE rainwater harvesting tanks in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, are buried 3' (1 m) underground. This protects the deiicate outlet plumbing from freezing, but it Is not so deep that the tanks collapse from soil pressure.
The little box at right houses the pressure pump, which is prevented from freezing
either by draining it for the winter or by heating with thermostatically
controlled
incandescent light bulbs.

74

Storage for emergency supply can come from:

secure reserve in your regular tank

reservoirs of water in your house plumbing
alternative sources in your surroundings
longterm storage in sealed containers

After considering how much water you need, we'll run through these options, then
look at how to protect stored water, and finally, water storage considerations for fighting
fires.

ow Much Emergency Water Do Y@ Need?

For drinking and cooking, 2 L per day per person is a reasonable figure. With fanatical
conservation, all other uses except clothes washing can be met with 5 gal a day (20 L) of
water, or even less. Clothes washing is resistant to conservationit will probably take as
much water as everything else combined. Since any old water will do for clothes washing, you're better off planning on going to the river for laundry than storing the water.
(If you find yourself suddenly constrained to this level of water consumption by disaster,
you can take solace in the fact that this is about how much water humans have lived on
in most areas for all of history, including most people today.)

In Kenya I
found ten-person
families using five
gallons of water
per daytotal!
Ianto Evans

How long a time period to store water for is another question. How long do you
expect the water could be off? For most contexts, a week to a month's worth of water is a
reasonable amount. In some places with a distinct dry season, it may make sense to have
enough stored water to make it through the dry season, even if it is eight months long.

Emergency Storage You Already H m

The regular storage in your water system can serve well as emergency storage,
especially if you pay attention to the water security suggestions in the next section and
elsewhere. (Plumb your tank with an emergency reserve, Figures 15, 29, make your tank
structurally sound, Appendix B, etc.) The advantage of using your regular water storage
for emergencies is that it is maintained automatically as a consequence of the regular
maintenance of your system.
Chances are that a bit of resourcefulness will turn up a considerable amount of alternative water supplies also, for example:
> Water in your plumbingOpen the highest tap and collect water from the lowest.
Ice cubes in the freezer.
Water in the toilet tank(Not the bowl!) is worth saving and using. You can unhook
the flush valve to keep someone from flushing away this suddenly valuable resource.
The hot water tankIs a substantial reserve of usable water. It can be accessed
through the drain valve at the bottom. The water may come out with calcium deposits
in it, which can be allowed to settle out before use. Hot water tanks should be secured
with metal straps so they don't tip over in an earthquake.
Rooftop solar heatersCan yield emergency water, too, especially if they are of the
storage type. If the plumbing in the house is trashed, you could shut off the service
shutoff valves to keep water from leaking out of the solar heaters. Usually there will be
service shutoff valves on both the incoming and outgoing lines.
> Hot tubs, pools, and decorative pondsContain a large amount of water suitable for
washing, bathing, and firefighting.
Nearby surface waterIf you have a water source nearby such as a natural watercourse or reservoir, you could supplement your emergency stored water with water
carried from that source by hand, wheelbarrow, bike cart, car, or truck. You are fortu-

75

Earthquake strap for

water heater:
Wrap a 1-Vz" wide,
gauge-thick
metal
strap (A) around
the top of the water
heater and bolt the
ends together. Do the
same about 'A of the
way up the side of the
water heater. Take four
lengths of EMT electrical conduit, each no
longer than 30". Flatten the ends. Bolt one
end to the metal strap
as shown (B). Screw
the other end to a
2"x4" stud in the wall
using a Vie" x 3" lag
screw. Be sure a flexible pipe (C) is used to
connect the gas supply
to the heater.

nate if you are surrounded with water that is naturally drinkable. But, as billions of
people worldwide are aware, even quite funky water serves fine for most uses (see
Table 1: Different Water Qualities for Different Uses, p. 7).
RainwaterCollected directly from the sky into bowls is OK to drink directly virtually
everywhere. Rainwater collected from roofs can have pathogens from rooftop critters
such as rats, raccoons, and monkeys. Rainwater is exceptionally well suited to use for
washing, dishwashing, and bathing.
Nearby groundwaterIndigenous people, forced to find water in your suburb, might
tap into an abundant, fairly clean supply accessible via a shallow hand-dug well in a
nearby creek bank.
Your wellYou can hand-pump small quantities of water from a well using a bought
or improvised hand pump: plunge a length of pipe with a check valve on the bottom
up and down in the casing, as if you were churning butter, and water will come out the
top.

It is wise to supplement other emergency water supplies with drinking water

stored in small containers.
The shelf life of emergency drinking water depends on its original quality, the material
it is stored in, the amount of light it is exposed to, and the storage temperature. Water
stored in aquifers for millions of years is fine. Water in human-made containers can be
rendered unpleasant or useless for drinking by:
the container breaking
chemicals from the container leaching into the water
permeation of outside chemicals through the container
walls into the water
bacterial regrowth
algae growth
Well-washed glass jugs, plastic screw-top milk jugs, water
bottles, etc., are good vessels for emergency water. Water stored
in glass is at risk of loss via breakage. Water stored in HDPE
X
plastic for several years is pretty much assured of having a
barely tolerable plastic taste. Other plastics leach things that are
nastier but tasteless. You can cover your bets by using a mixture of container materials: a bunch of glass jugs, a 55 gal (200
L) HDPE drum, and some polycarbonate and PETE plastic containers.
55 gal HDPE plastic drums are a classic, ubiquitous liquid storage container. They are
ideal for storage of bulk emergency drinking waterwhen they have contained something nontoxic. Lightweight enough to carry up into an apartment empty, these drums
are still movable (just barely) when full. They are tough and resilient. One 55 gal drum
holds drinking water for a family of four for three weeks. Food grade steel drums are a
possibility but much less desirable due to their tendency to corrode and leak.
Municipal tap water in developed countries is reliably pathogen-free and requires no
treatment before storage. If you doubt your well or spring water, you can add 16 drops of
chlorine per gallon before storing it. Ozonation should also work.
Label all containers with the date, water source, and method of disinfection used.
Store your containers in a dark, cool place. In a few years, sample the water and see
what is working for your source water, storage conditions, and taste. You can then store
proportionally more water by these means.
If these filled containers are exposed to any light, they may grow algae. Even if it
produces a strong taste, it shouldn't be harmful to drink.

76

55 gal drum as roofwater catchment and

storage in Panama.
Much of the world lives
permanently with what
would be considered a
state of water emergency by most readers
of this book.

In Hazards of Stored Water (p. 52) we considered what harm stored

water could do. Now we're going to consider what harm can be done to
stored water and how to avoid it. (Note: For freeze protection see p. 74.)

Earthquake Resistant Storage

In designing for earthquake resistance, it is important to recall that:
inlet or outlet pipes are as or more likely to break than the tank itself
raised storage, tower or rooftop, is much more likely to fail
properly engineered storage is much less likely to fail
Earthquakes can generate a variety of motionsback and forth, up and
down. Rhythmic movement can amplify if it coincides with the resonant
frequency of the structure or sloshing water in the tank. The most violent
motions the earth can generate are all but impossible to engineer structures
for. Many building codes call for structures to resist an acceleration of 0.2
gravities (but accelerations of 1-2 gravities have been recorded). Imagine
the plane of the earth tilting until it and the tank are sloped 20%. Would the
tank fall or slide over? Perhaps it needs to be anchored.

Fire Resistant Storage

In a fire, the most likely failure points for a water storage system are the
pieces that can burn. The most secure installation would not have plastic
outlet pipe, rubber seals or couplings, wooden supports, or delicate steel
supports surrounded by fuel, or depend on unprotected electronic controls.
Water inside a tank can carry heat away, often enough to save the walls
from burning. In the 1990 Painted Cave Fire106F, 8% humidity, 50 mph
winds400 houses burned in a few hours.01 The sides of our old redwood
water tank burned down to the water level, where the burning stopped.
New water couldn't get into the tank, however, because the wooden truss work that supported the galvanized inlet line burned away, and the unsupported pipe broke.

Hurricane Resistant Storage

Tanks are vulnerable to wind when they are empty or nearly so. A full water tank,
made of any material, is so heavy it is not likely to be affected by wind, except indirectly
by flying debris or falling trees puncturing the side or breaking an outlet. Lightweight
tanks definitely need to be anchored against high winds in areas that experience them.

Lightning Grounding
Steel tank installations without cathodic protection need to be grounded in accordance with local electrical and fire codes. Use a zinc grounding rod where the tank
touches the earth, not a copper rod.

Roots and Trees

Probing, swelling roots, swaying branches, and falling trees can wreak havoc on
water systems. One of the sadder but necessary maintenance tasks is to rip out tree seedlings that are too close to tanks.

Toxic Leakage or Leaching

Aquifers can be threatened by toxins from underground gasoline tanks, dry cleaners,
agricultural poisons and nitrates, or saltwater intrusion driven by over pumping (see
Aquifers, p. 16). Water stored in tanks is pretty much immune to contamination of this
sort from outside; the concerns are contamination of the source water, and leaching from
the tank (see How Water Quality Changes in Storage, p. 9, and Tank Materials, p. 39).

The Hazard of Permeation

Permeation is the diffusion of chemicals through the wall of the container or pipe and
"'Metric.: 41C, 80 kph wind.

77

Almost all water tanks

survived the 200& Tea
Fire in Santa
Barbara,
CA, somewhat
worse
for the wear, but still
watertight,
Several
ferrocement tanks did
well.

Flammable
Storage for
Automatic Fire
Control?
A neighbor used a
generator to pump
water from his cheap,
plastic tank. One day,
the generator caught
fire. The fire spread
to the adjacent plastic
tank. When the tank
burned through, the
water rushed out and
put out the fire on
both the generator and
the tank!

into the water. Permeation can be an issue with aromatic toxins (gasoline, kerosene, pesticides, and the like) and plastic pipes or containers. For example, if you store emergency
water in polyethylene containers (such as milk jugs) next to gasoline cans, paint thinner,
and pesticides, the fumes can permeate through the plastic and contaminate the water. A
municipal PVC water main passing through an industrial waste plume can absorb toxins
by the same route. Permeation of toxins can be avoided by using an impervious material
(metal, glass) to contain the water, keeping toxins well away, or bestkeeping toxins out
of your life entirely. Thick-walled plastic containers (such as 55 gal drums) are significantly less permeable than thin-walled ones.

Armed Marauders
If you are worried about hordes of barbarians stealing your water after the disaster,
your best bet is to hide it underground, or disguise it (e.g., as a ferrocement boulder).

Children, Vandals, Unauthorized Access

One desert community I know occasionally found passing motorists skinny-dipping
inside their potable water tanks. Fences and locks provide some security against this
sort of thing. You can remove valve handles, lock valves in position, or enclose valves in
locked boxes to reduce the chance of accidental or malicious adjustments.
IT Publications has this to say about children and water systems:
"Children should be considered to be compulsive saboteurs of the system. Although they do not
do so deliberately, their curiosity leads to much damage and repetition of work. Open pipe ends,
exposed pipeline, fresh masonry all will attract attention, with frustrating results."16

% s f s for Firdigitlitf
One of the most valuable uses for stored water is to prevent or limit fires, saving
people and property. In places where fire safety is an issue, the firefighting performance
requirements (legally mandated or owner preferred) often drive the design. Typically, the
amount of storage, the pipe sizes, and pressure will be much higher.
Besides a hydrant and water storage set aside just for firefighting, there may be requirements for wide, gently sloped, paved access with a huge turnaround at your house.
It may be cheaper to go beyond the water system requirements (even as expensive as
plumbing is) in trade for slack on the road requirements, if the fire marshal is willing.
From an integrated design perspective, this is almost always worth it.
Speaking of integrated design, ideas about fire safety best practices for wildland interface areas are very much in flux, stirred in part by experience in Australia and Southern
California.

Fire Safety Plan

Left on its own, your home has to be totally impervious to fire (or lucky) to survive.
The biggest factor for the survival of houses is the presence of people to defend them.
In Australia, following a particularly deadly fire season in 1983, researchers examined
100 years of fire data. More than 90% of the houses lost were never exposed to direct
flame or radiant heat. They were ignited by blowing embers. Most deaths were from late
evacuation. There were almost no deaths among people actively defending their homes.
In response, Australia pioneered a "prepare, stay and defend, OR get out early" policy in the early 1990s. Since then, more than 90% of structures defended by able-bodied
people survived, because the owners were there to put out spot fires from raining embers
before and after the flame front passed. Some districts in California are considering this
approach. It remains to be seen how, or if, the February 2009 fires will affect this trend.
The first-person accounts from fire disasters are harrowing and informative.
In Santa Barbara's Tea Fire, 800 students sheltered safely in the windowless, concrete
gym in a well-cleared area of Westmont College. This was planned in advance; they'd
had a drill less than month before. There were no special provisions for air supply.
In Australia, one family survived the recent inferno in a homebrew fire bunker at78

Climate
Disruption
Exacerbating
Fires
A few days after
the 2008 Tea Fire
in Santa Barbara,
California, Governor
Schwarzenegger
acknowledged that
because of global
climate disruption,
Central and Southern
California now have
an extended fire
season stretching from
late February through
December, instead
of late June through
mid-October (January
and February are
flood season, if we're
lucky). California
spent nearly a billion dollars on fire
suppression in 2008,
as well as half of
US Forest Service
firefighting dollars.
Australia had fires
far worse than any
in history, with
larger loss of life, in
February of 2009.

tached to a water tank. The $1,000 fireproof door heated up so much

before they got in that it wouldn't shut all the way; flames licked in.
There was no mention of special provision for air supply
Five friends had seconds' notice before their shop and vehicles
were engulfed in flame. They jumped into waist-deep water in an old
concrete water tank. They stuffed wet shirts in the cracks in the walls,
took turns boosting each other up to the hatch for (smoky) outside air,
and survived.
Some people evacuated early, but miles away their escape was cut
off by another fire. Some stayed, fought, and didn't make it.
Our home has been threatened by fire three times in the past two
years. To be willing to stay (or if we're trapped), I'd want at least one
totally fireproof structure we could hide out in for the 5-30 minutes it
takes the flame front to pass.
There are unanswered questions about thermal resistance, thermal mass, insulation, and air supply There does not appear to have
been much research or testing. Analysis of the tragedy unfolding
in Australia as we go to press will likely help others survive future
conflagrations.
Cob (monolithic adobe fibercomposite) is a material which is more
fire-resistant than concrete, because it conducts heat more slowly. It is
also earthquake and termite resistant, and exceptionally owner-builder
friendly. A cob cottage with a ferrocement roof and metal shutters
over metal dual-glazed windows and doors is a structure which could
potentially resist the most intense firestorm, and still be pleasant to live
in. Small cob cottages are reportedly used traditionally to safeguard
family treasures in Japanese wooden villages.
Water tanks seem to survive fire very well compared to other structures. Could a ferrocement rainwater harvesting tank near the house
do triple duty as an invincible (if claustrophobic) fire-safe haven? It
seems that a higher roof to ensure head space with air inside the tank,
and a pressure tank with fresh air supply, could make it so. The cost
would be very low and security high compared to any alternative.
Buried, cast concrete septic tanks as low cost, high security underground fire bunkers are being promoted in Australia (probably better
to have it double as a root cellar rather than a septic tank). In the old
days, people in Australian lumber camps had dugouts with timber
roofs as fire shelters, fed by the inches of fresh air rushing along the
surface of the earth to feed the fire.
Lots of people living in flammable brush is inherently dangerous.
The least dangerous way of managing this is an open question.
Whatever your fire safety plan, research it well, prepare, and practice for it; the stakes are quite high.

Current Southern
California Wildland
Interface Fire Safety
Approach:
Mechanical clearing around flammable
homes and landscapes
Big, wide, costly, and ecologically
devastating evacuation/access roads
Water systems that often fail in afire
Expensive but flammable construction
Protection of homes only by overwhelmed professionals
Dense fuel that has frequently burned
clear the past 15,000 years, but has
built up unprecedented levels from 80
years of fire suppression
A state insurance system for high fire
areas that may go bankrupt due to
climate change-induced increase in
fire, even though it currently is paying
out only half the cost of rebuilding

The more economical and

ecological approach I think
we may eventually be
forced to adopt:
Fire-safe landscaping, most clearing by
frequent, less intense fires
Human-scale roads
More robust water systems
A mix of structures that are passively
and actively fire-armored to protect
residents in a full scale firestorm, and
inexpensive structures that burn clean
Protection of structures primarily by
residents
Maintenance of low fuel levels through
frequent fires
Increasing reliance on self-insurance
oasisdesign.net/shelter/fire

Water System Design For Fire

In most fire emergency situations, well power is off, and/or the flow demand is
so much greater than the supply that storage is essential to cover it. For example, the
incoming supply might be 10 gpm, while the fire department can go through several
thousand gallons in 15 minutes."1 However, incoming water may make a crucial difference in realityespecially if the reality is that your tanks are low to start with, or get
drained wetting things down before the fire even gets there.
Armoring the water supply system, as described in Fire-Resistant Storage (p. 77),
will increase the likelihood that at least some water is being added to the system even
as you are rapidly draining it. If you don't have an entirely gravity powered system,
stored water may be your only supply, as fire often knocks out the power grid before the
"'Metric: Incoming supply is 40 lpin,fire department can use tens of thousands of liters in lb minutes.

79

flames arrive. A battery bank and electric pump, a gas pump, or a generator and electric
pump can keep water flowing/pressurized in this instance (don't plan on your generator
or gas pump working in an emergency unless you maintain it).
In general, I prefer fire emergency hardware, especially pumps, that are incorporated
into the regular system. I plan to use the fire emergency pump to pressurize the rainwater supply to our house. Besides the efficiency of the item doing double duty, it's much
more likely to work when a fire comes if it is something that is regularly used.
When plumbing your pool or spa, hook things up so that you can use the pool's own
filter pump to power a fire hose. Some people also include a gas pump (or generator) in
the pool plumbing for firefighting. This may require different-sized lines and/or pump
for adequate flow and pressure. Make sure the pump inlet is near the bottom of the pool,
so the system can access most of the water. If you use a gas pump for irrigation, you
might as well use it for fire, too.
Water elements for fire safety (besides the idea of using a water tank as fire-safe
haven, mentioned earlier) are of three classes: systems to support fire hoses, automatic
fire sprinklers (interior and /or exterior), and water to refill fire trucks:

Water for Fire Hoses

To operate fire hoses, you will need:
Stored water with high pressure (gravity preferred)At the hydrant, pressure
should be 40-100 psi (275-700 kPa).
A decent-sized lineFor good dynamic pressure at high flow. For instance, a highpressure 2" line can barely supply two I-V2" hoses at the same time, while a 3" line
at the same pressure could supply three hoses, with better flow for each hose.*
Fire hosesStored onsite, convenient to hydrants.
A pumpTo make up for low pressure and / or an inadequately sized line.
A foam injection systemSee Foam, p. 81.
Even one fire hose places an extreme demand on system hardware. Accommodating
this can double the resources required to build your storage and distribution plumbing
all for something that hopefully will never get used. Is it worth it? It is a form of insurance, one that you'll have to judge how much to purchase.
The difference between a %" garden hose and a I-V2" fire hose is truly phenomenal.
Likewise the difference between 40 and 100 psi of water pressure. You'll need a powerful water delivery capability to have a chance against the considerable power of a house
fire or wildfire. When we are burning brush piles, occasionally a gust of wind drives the
flames skyward on a windrow of 50 truckloads of tinder-dry brush. In seconds it can
go from feeling like a nice campfire to having your clothes ironed with you in them.
A moment's burst from a I-V2" fire hose (with 60 psi of pressure) puts it right down. A
garden hose going full-blast would do essentially nothing; it would just take a bit longer
for it to get so hot that you had to back off. If we were to let the whole thing get fully
engaged and roaring, with wall-to-wall two-story-high flames, we could probably put it
completely out in a few minutes with two fire hoses.
On the other hand, a fully engaged firestorm in Southern California chaparral,
whipped by freeway-speed, hot, dry wind is beyond the capability of any fire hose to
suppress. That's when you 1) pay your insurance diligently and get out early or 2) build
a fireproof bunker and stay and defend against embers (p. 79).
Some other things to think about are the location of fire hose standpipes (small
hydrants) and how they are plumbed. The hydrants should be near structures, but not so
near that it would be too hot to hook up hoses if the structure were burning.
The plumbing needs to be secure. I've seen hydrants that were made by connecting
a hip-high vertical length of steel pipe directly to a tee in an underground PVC pipe.
Imagine a panicked person pulling hard for a bit more hose they desperately need to
keep their home from burning down. Pulling, that is, on a long steel lever with a brittle
connection to a delicate plastic pipe. If it breaks, they've got a tough decisionturn off
the water, or watch the tank empty uselessly, in each case while the house burns.
*Flow is proportional
to pipe diameter
kPa), ideal for fire hoses.

squared

times two thirds; 230' (70 m) of head provides

80

100 psi (700

FIGURE 2 7 : SWING JOINT

ATTACHMENT FOR A
SMALL HYDRANT

Hydrant can be pulled

or knocked over without
breaking the main. Use
plenty of Teflon paste
on the threads and
wrap the outside with
pipe wrap tape.

One solution is to encase the steel in enough concrete at ground level so that the
steel will bend before the plastic underneath breaks. A better solution is to put two
90 bends at right angles, so the standpipe can be pulled or knocked over without
stressing the plastic pipe (Figure 27).

Water for Fire Sprinklers

Water system features for fire sprinklers:
Stored water with adequate gravity pressure (or a booster pump), and a line
size engineered for adequate flow. (%" at 100 psi to 1-Vi" at 40 psi for a residence.)'"
A mechanism for triggering the sprinklers at the right time, such as heat-sensitive sprinkler heads. I've also heard of heat-sensitive wires that trigger a valve.
Roof-wetting systems on a home with a roof rainwater harvesting system can be
plumbed to recycle the water running down the gutters, so it takes much longer
to run the tank dry.
Indoor fire sprinklers may or may not stop a house fire, but they will virtually
always slow and cool it enough so residents can escape. 33 There is a detailed code for
interior fire sprinklers.
For exterior sprinklersdesigned to keep a wildfire from incinerating your
homethe design is up to you. The common roof-wetting design is a high-pressure
irrigation sprinkler or two.
Here's my (untried) design idea for rooftop sprinklers: Place copper pipes along
the roof ridgelines, with small holes drilled in them for the water to jet (or drool) over
the roof. It seems that the water would get used much more efficiently, and that you'd
cover the whole roof even if the pressure were really low (as it will be if your neighbors are all wetting things down in a panic). W h a f s more, if you've got a roof rainwater harvesting system, the water would virtually all
go back into your tank, so you could just turn the
pump on and leave the water to circulate. The same
type of system (pipe with holes) could be installed
under the eaves to protect eaves and windows as
well, although it wouldn't recycle. A flowing sheet
of water over tempered, dual glazed windows is
an effective fire wall (if you try one of these, let me
know how it turns out).

This house was brick

with a tile roof. The
owner had his own gravity flow water supply
feeding alVz" fire hose,
hie stayed and sprayed
down the exposed rafter tails with fire retardant gel until his hair
was singed from the
heat of the advancing
wall of flame.
Despite his doing everything right, the house
burned anyway, probably from the
underside
of the roll roofing under
the tiles on the eaves
catching fire. Cars
sprayed with foam survived untouched.

Water for Fire Trucks

Fire trucks don't carry that much waterusually
no more than 800 gal (3 m3). Dedicated tanker
trucks can carry a few thousand gallons (10-15 m').
Sources for refilling trucks include:
stored water with gravity pressure, a large
diameter line, and the right hydrant fitting (a
4" hydrant right by the tank is common)
a pond, swimming pool, hot tub, or river, pumped out with a suction hose

Foam
Injecting Type A firefighting foam or gel greatly increases the effectiveness of
water for fighting fires. The wet foam sticks, smothering fire on something burning,
or insulating and reflecting heat from something you're trying to protect.
If your plan is to wet things down and evacuate early, foam is much more effective
than water alone. Instead of running off, it sticks (for 20 minutes to a few hours). Turn
your house into a big marshmallow and go (or duck into your fire bunker).
A neighbor of ours did this with his house and big wooden deck. He watched the
flames cavitate under the deck, but it didn't catch firequite impressive.
'"Metric: Line sizes range from 2 cm at 700 kPa to 4 cm al 2/5 kPa.

Could "stay and defend" have saved this

house? Having a firesafe bunker would have
enabled the owner to
find out with an acceptable level of risk
(and could have saved
his neighbors months in
the burn unit).
Note that the halffull plastic tank survived the fast moving
firestorm.

Context: A community of 100 in arid Southern California desert.

Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for 30 homes, with a maximum use of 300
gpd (1.1 in3/day) per household. Provide substantial fire safety reserve.
For the first 70 years, economy and owner-serviceability were primary goals. Owners
have recently, reluctantly decided to trade off economy, owner-serviceability, arid environmental impact in order to meet the requirements of the Surface Water Treatment
Rule34-35 and minimize possible liability exposure.
Water supply: Gravity flow springs (5-17 gpm/20-60 Ipm diverted from 8-30 gpm/30225 Ipm flow) with turbidity and legal challenges, well from an aquifer with nitrate
levels hovering just below the legal limit (14 g p m / 5 3 Ipm, 12 hrs/day max pumping);
some harvesting of rooftop rainwater and runoff.

FIGURE 2 8 : CALIFORNIA DESERT W A T E R SYSTEM ELEVATIONS

82

Storage: Small aquifer (with a capacity of approximately one or two years' consumption),
three tanks (two 50,000 gal/190 m3 tanks, one 3,000 gal/11 m3 tank), about 10,000 gal
(38 m3) in three private rainwater harvesting tanks.
Average use: 4,500 gpd.
Peak use: 9,000 gpd for up to 20 consecutive days of really hot weather.
Fire design flow: System can deliver 100,000 gal (380 m3) at 35 psi (240 kPa) to a 6" hydrant. It can also power one or two I-V2 fire hoses on the distribution network, which
is 2" pipe, with pressures from 38 to 100 psi depending on elevation.
There are about 40,000 gal (150 m3) of emergency set-aside that can only be accessed
by opening a valve at the tanks. This is not ideal; it should also be directly connected
to the hydrants.
Water security: Good. There is sufficient storage to meet two weeks' use without water
income. In the absence of electricity, this system can deliver clean (if not legally compliant) spring water equal to half the peak dry season consumption. In the case of
flood waters contaminating the springs or washing out the pipes, it can deliver well
water equal to the full rainy season consumption.
There is concern about falling water tables due to overdraft all around, but this has
not hit the springs nor this well directly as yet. (Except that the groundwater level
was lowered due to overdrafting the well during the five years when the springs were
offline while code-compliant treatment was being installed.)
Issues and notes: This system is above the ten-connection threshold and is thus subject
to the draconian provisions of the Surface Water Quality Act. The spring water is substantially pre-treated in the tank first. With settling and ozonation, the system delivers
coliform-free water with <1 NTU turbidity at up to 5 gpm, which meets the sky-high
performance requirement of the law. Nonetheless, a package treatment plant, an online turbidimeter, a chlorine injector, and an online confirmation of chlorination meter
are being added to comply with the proscriptive requirements of the law. This law is a
classic example of tunnel vision (see p. 5). Hopefully the law will be made more flexible in the future. Allowing users to meet the performance or proscriptive requirement
(as is the case with building codes) would be a great improvement.

fflft? Stored
m Wse Season
W

fa Diy Season, Hydroelectric

Context: Ecovillage and events center of 30 residents in Highland Central Mexico.

Goals: Provide storage for highly conservative residential use for ten homes, with a dry
season max use of 106 gal (0.4 m3) per day per household. Low cost, low impact, and
simplicity are paramount. Water quality goal is <10 fecal coliforms per 100 ml.4 Fire
safety would be great but is beyond the means of the owners.
Water supply: Rainfall and runoff, during four- to six-month rainy season only. During
the dry season, all water used is drawn from storage, and the storage level drops
each day. There is a community water diversion at the base of a waterfall that runs
primarily during rain, at zero to 265 gpm (1 m3/min). Every home harvests its rooftop
rainwater. In a pinch, people can buy tanker trucks of water driven up from the valley
500 m below.
Storage: There is a rock dam spanning two vertical veins of bedrock, which forms a community tank of 100,000 gal (375 m3). A smaller rock dam forms the waterfall diversion
settling pool of 11,600 gal (44 m3). There is a ferrocement distribution tank of 2,600 gal
(10 m3) used to meter the water (by the tankful) as it is transferred from the big community tank to about 20 private tanks of ferrocement, rock, cement, or plastic, which
altogether hold another 53,000 gal (200 rn3).
Average use: 600 gpd (2,256 Ipd).
Peak use: The rate is unknown, but peak flow occurs during big festivals hosted at the
site, with hundreds of attendees.

83

Water security: Poor. In the absence of electricity, many

homes could not get water out of their buried cisterns
easily. If the monsoon is late, or there is a leak, individual homes and sometimes the whole community
run out of water and have to have it trucked in.
Issues and notes: Huehuecoyotl is a critical context for
water storage.
They have zero water income for six to eight months
of dry season. No rain, no creek, no springs, not even
reachable groundwater. (The World Bank dug a 400'
(120 in) deep well at the village next door, and it was
dry as dust at the bottom.) All their water during the
dry season is from stored water, of which there is less
each day.
The "presa pyramids" (pyramid dam)a
Then, in the monsoon it rains 4.5' (1.5 m) in four or six
100,000 gal (3&0 m3) cistern made by
months!
sealing off the space between two walls
of bedrock with stone and cement. This
One interesting thing about this place is that the 11,600 gal (44 m')
construction is difficult to seal perfectly
pool at the base of the waterfall can be used as a hydroelectric storleak-tight, which is important if you don't
age "battery" during the rainy season. That is, draining the pool
have water to add to the cistern for
through the hydroelectric turbine yields electricity, just like a bateight months.
tery.*
There is more on the rainwater harvesting and seasonal hydroelectric systems at Huehuecoyotl in our forthcoming book, Rainwater Harvesting and
Runoff Management.3 The greywater systems are described in Create an Oasis with
Greywater2 and Branched Drain Greywater Systems.36

TABLE 8 : HUEHUECOYOTL SYSTEM COMPONENTS

SAMPLE PORTION

Huehuecoyotl System Components, Valves, and Settings

Description

c?

< /

Standard states

.
:

o*

6 c?
HD-TE

TE-IS
TE-IF
TE-F

: Inlet pipe

2"

2,01 2.00 jball valve

: float valve
mosquito net

Unlet shutoff
:Inlet float
:Outlet filter

;Rainwater inlet
TE-RB
TE-

2,012.25

filter

:Rainwater bypass
iOutlet iine

:mosquito
2,01 2.30 :plug

Meter T e e s
P
Drain plug

ithreaded plug

Shut-off to theater, 65 m 3 cistern, bathhouse gate

M
S
M

Meter to theater, 65 m 3 cistern, bath house

: Shut-off to house
pate
jMeter t o house
2,001.00

Code k e y
IS
IF
OS
FO
OL
0
AR

:Inlet shut-off
I n l e t float valve
:Outlet shut-off
IOutlet filter
iOutlet level control
Overflow
: Air relief

net

SA
VB
M
PU
R
L
B

2"
2"

/ ^

A.

Note

pvc

ipvc
ibrass

shut/open
:

open

shut/open
iopen/shut

;UK. t o leave open when HULL is

ipressurizing line if water is clean,
especially if the tinaco is basically
|fuM and it is just topping o f f .
;r\smuve union d..u ansurev*

:
open

iopen

shut

ibrass

shut

-shut

shut

shut

;brass
brass
:brass

open

open

shut

2"
1.5"

ipvc
pvc

1.5"
1"
1"
i"
1"

iSends water inside tank when shut

open

:galv

fin path-open t o e m p t y tinaco E,

open

Shock absorber
IVacuum breaker
:Meter
:pump
:Rain
;Line
Bypass

*11,600 gal with 70' of head (44 vf/llm) run through a Harris mierohydro turbine provides about 1,800 watt-hours
of energy, about the same as a big deep ci/cle battery, but with much longer life and no problem with 100% cycling.

84

ishut for leaks, service

;shut for leaks, service

Alteration
Context: Rural conference center on 30 acres in Southern Oregon.
Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for up to 30 seasonal workshop participants and a handful of year-round resident caretakers. Provide irrigation for V2 acre
(2,000 m1) of gardens and orchard. Fire safety is beyond the scope of this system.
Water supply: Year-round creek (>30 gpm/110 Ipm flow).
Storage: System runs creek direct, with a 300 gal (1..1 m3) tank at the far end of the system. This is intended to cover peak demand flow, supply more secure water to the
highest, last houses on the line, and provide reserve for when the diversion washes
out and the system needs air flushed from the lines.
Average use: 600 gpd (2.2 m3).
Peak use: 900 gpd (3.3 m3) for up to 20 consecutive days of really hot weather during
workshops.
Water security: Good. This system does not use electricity at all. In the case of flooding,
the water is not drinkable, and the diversion washes out. However, this only happens
in winter, when the population is low, and the 100 gal (0.3 m') of reserve is sufficient
to hold over residents until the diversion can be restored.
FIGURE 2 9 : CREEK DIRECT WITH REMOTE STORAGE SYSTEM

Diversion
Screened

Exact height
of creek diversion

Tank
For use spikes ,
and reserve

Inlet/outlet
Outlet to upper
fwo houses

Creek
30 gpm

Drain/
emergency
outlet

Garden
filter
3/4" line

Issues and notes:

The creek water, one branch of which comes out of a recent clear cut, had higher
than desirable coliform bacteria.
The system was providing less water flow than desired.
When the water line washed out, someone had to go out for hours (usually in the
dark, during freezing rain) and de-couple the line in several places to let air out
before the flow would start again.
The tank was defiling the most beautiful place on the creek, and the owners wanted
to move it.
Finally, the highest two buildings on the systemthe last on the linedidn't have
as much water security as they'd like; any open valve lower down would leave
them high and dry
First, the bacteria issue. We inventoried all the possible drinking water sources, which
included a very small, shallow spring nearby, bigger and deeper but distant springs,
"naturally" filtered creek water coming out the bottom of an old dam filled with sedi-

85

ment, and the creek itself. We concluded that no other source was worth
making a separate delivery system for, and that the best option was to
treat the creek water itself with a slow sand filter (Figure 30, at right).
Now we're going to look at how a minor change in the storage for this
system did a lot to resolve the other issues:

FIGURE 3 0 : SMALL SAND FILTER FOR

DRINKING ONLY
Screened
overflow/vent
U-

Toilet float
valve

ORIGINAL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Parameter

Supply flow 30 gpm

I

Water

Performance

113 Ipm

Static pressure in system 12 psi

83 kPa

Max flow from system 3 gpm

11 Ipm

Reserve on system failure Ogal

Screen
Fine sand
1/8-1/4" coarse
gravel

01

- ^jks

Time to restart system 4 hours

Daily use 600 gal
Water contributing to 20,000 gal
sediment load, daily

7^-Prain

2 m

76 m3

before

Performance

Static pressure in system 17 psi

Max flow from system 4.2 gpm
Reserve on system failure Ogal

Metric

1-2"

SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AFTER TAKING STORAGE OFFLINE

Supply flow 30 gpm

1-2" gravel

Outlet
Yt-W

The water source, a creek, flows several times the

maximum flow capacity of the water line. Of the 30
gpm (110 Ipm) of creek flow, a 1" pipe captures about 2A
(20 gpm (75 Ipm)) and diverts it into the tank. Of that,
only about 1 gpm (4 Ipm) average is consumed, with the
balance overflowing the tank. Much of the settleable
solids stay in the tank. These settled solids were likely
to be vacuumed into the distribution system by the
combined outlet/ drain.
The tank was not increasing the peak system capacity, not providing a reserve, nor improving the water
quality. So we took it out. This changed the system
performance as follows:

Parameter

sand

113 Ipm Same

120 kPa

40% more

16 Ipm

40% more

0L

Same

Time to restart system 2 hours

50% less

Daily use 600 gal

2 lit3-

Same

Water contributing to sediment load, daily 600 gal

2 tri*

97% less

Then the caretaker had an inspired idea for what to do with the tankput it at the far
end of the distribution system. Probably only someone with little water system design
experience could have conceived of such an unconventional geometryusually the storage is at the beginning of the distribution system.
I suggested putting the tank at a level such that the overflow is 2" (5 cm) lower than
the creek diversion several hundred pipe feet (a few hundred meters) away on the other
side of the ridge (see Figure 29, previous page). With the tank inlet/outlet located a third
of the way down, the tank fills whenever all the valves down below are shut. When
someone turns on a garden sprinkler while someone is in the shower, water flows both
from the creek diversion and from the upper third of the tank, giving the bather a good
chance of getting the soap off before the flow drops.

86

.3 -6 cm
.6-1.27 cm i
cm

After

Water before and after

sand filtration,
after
just two and a half
days online. As the filter matures, the treatment level will be much
higher still.

By adding a separate outlet two-thirds of the way down, the tank provides water
pressure and supply for the upper two houses that is not affected by use in the rest of the
complex.
With an outlet for the reserve at the bottom of the tank, there is emergency water that
can run the whole place for a couple days if the line washes out, or so that the maintenance can be done at a convenient time. Also, the pressure from the reserve water can
be used to push the air out of the system so that it starts up with far less effort. The total
cost of all the changes to the system is about $40 for two bulkhead fittings to make new
outlets on the tank, and an inline particle filter to ensure that solids from the creek don't
fill the line. The following chart shows the system performance at the end, as compared
to the beginningquite an illustration of how the design of storage can totally change
the performance of a system:
SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AFTER MOVING TANK TO F A R E N D OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Performance

Parameter
Supply flow 30 gpm
Static pressure in system 17 psi
4.2 gpm continuMax flow from system ous/8 gpm for 15
min
Reserve on system failure 300 gal

223 Ipm

Same

120 kPa

40% more

16 lpm/30 Ipm

260% more

1 m3

300 gal more

Time to restart system Vi hour

75% less

Daily use 600 gal

m3

Water contributing to sediment load, daily 600 gal

m3

Wmfv W t r j

tow

Same
97% less

tesire

Context: Single-family residence in a steep, wild canyon in Southern California.

Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for one family of four, by gravity. Provide
irrigation for Vs acre (500 m1) of gardens and orchard. Fire safety is beyond the scope
of this system.
Water supply: Horizontal hard rock well / infiltration galley (a tunnel with water percolating in or out of it), 1-2 gpm flow (4-8 Ipm).
Storage: With the kitchen tap shut, the shallow pool in the floor of the infiltration galley
rises until it meets the overflow. With the tap open, the pool level drops as much as 6"
(15 cm), to the spill point of the outlet.
Average use: 100 gpd (0.4 .m3/day).
Peak use: 200 gpd (0.8 m3/day).
FIGURE 3 1 : ULTRA L O W H E A D STORAGE

indstone

bedrock

Storage

Difference between max water

" level and min ~ 100 gal storage

Former groundwater

level

87

Water security: Excellent. This system does not require electricity and has only a short
run of pipe. Floods affect neither the pipe nor the well. It is thus quite secure. Falling
groundwater is about the only thing that could threaten this water supply.
Issues and notes: This system runs off of almost no pressure, yet delivers several gpm.

Context: A community of 20, 45 minutes' walk into the jungle from the Caribbean coast
of Costa Rica.
Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for five families. Irrigation is all directly
by rainfall. Fire safety is not an issue.
Water supply: Creek of about 5-30 gpm (20-110 Ipm) is used directly for drinking,
clothes washing, bathing (no soap). Small amounts of water are hand-carried into the
homes.
Storage: The storage is in the soil and aquifers that supply the creek, plus a few gallons
in small containers in the homes.
Average use: 100 gpd (0.4 ni'/day).
Peak use: 200 gpd (0.8 ni'/day).
Water security: OK. This system is only affected by extensive runoff during high water,
lowering the quality.
Issues and notes: This system has no artificial plumbing at all.

Context: Single-family residence in the Arizona desert.

Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for one family of four, plus irrigation of
Vi acre. Wildfire safety is not a major issue due to low fuel load in the surrounding
desert.
Water supply: 400' (120 m) well, with safe yield of 200-1000 gpd (0.8-3.8 m3/day). Water
level varies between 190' and 230' (60-70 m) below the surface. The tank is 90' (30 m)
above that.
Storage: The storage is in the aquifer that supplies the well, and in one 2000 gal (7.6 rn )
tank.
Average use: 200 gpd (0.8 m3/day).
Peak use: 400 gpd (1.6 rn3/day).
Water security: Poor. This system is critically dependent on electricity. Without electricity
to power the pump, there will be no water in five to ten days.
The aquifer is being lowered by overdraft from neighboring wells, and at some point
the well could go dry.
Issues and notes: I would feel better about the water security in this spot with the addition of a rainwater harvesting system and its associated storage, and perhaps a second
tank for the well water also, plumbed so that it is all reserve.

Context: Apartment in New York City.

Goals: Provide for conservative residential use for one family of four. Fire safety is provided for by the municipal and building systems.
Water supply: Municipal water meter.
Storage: The municipal water system has various reservoirs, but relies primarily on regular rainfall, which is typical in this climate.
The building has a 10,000 gal (38 m3) tank on the roof, which supplies the approximately 100 people in the building.
There is emergency on-site storage of filtered drinking water in several 1 gal HDPE

88

screw-top milk jugs, glass apple juice jugs, a 5 gal polycarbonate jug, plus 30 gal in the
hot water heater and 4 gal in the toilet tank. If push came to shove, there are 30 gal in
a freshwater aquarium.
Average use: 150 gpd (O.b m3/day).
Peak use: 300 gpd (1.1 in3/day).
Water security: OK. This system is critically dependent on electricity. There is a small
rooftop tank, but without electricity, there will be no water in a few hours at most.
Issues and notes: I would feel better about the water security in this spot with the addition of a 55 gal drum of clean stored water.

Context: A 5,000 ft2 (460 vi2) single-family home in a new gated community on the outskirts of Los Angeles, at the wildland / urban interface. Home is bordered by mountainous dry scrub on upwind side.
Goals: Provide for extravagant residential use for one family of four. Supplement fire
safety provided for by the municipal system to the extent practical.
Water supply: Municipal water meter, with water from the Colorado River and Owens
Valley.
Storage: The municipal water system has various reservoirs, but the primary water
sources are hundreds of miles away. The local reservoirs require electricity to get to
this location and are of questionable earthquake-hardiness. There is hardly enough
local water to meet residents' drinking needs.
The home has a 30,000 gal (113 m3) swimming pool.
There is emergency on-site storage of filtered drinking water in several 1 gal jugs, plus
50 gal in the hot water heater and 16 gal in the four toilet tanks.
Average use: 1,000 gpd (3.8 vf/day).
Peak use: 2,000 gpd (7.6 m3/day).
Water security: Poor. This system is critically dependent on electricity, and a very long,
weak supply line. Without electricity, there is no water immediately. The greatest
vulnerability, however, is of a large earthquake damaging major portions of the supply system. At this location, people could potentially be entirely without water for
months. If the earthquake precipitated an economic crisis, this house could be without
water indefinitely.
Issues and notes: The pool does quite a lot to improve water security at this spot. It
could be further improved with the addition of a few 55 gal drums of drinking water.
Fire safety would be improved with the addition of a pump and fire sprinklers and /
or hoses.

89

^ [ p o r n d f e A s

M^aMinoDQiM
of this type will be made.
If the units are approximations or don't really matter,
the units are given to the nearest round number. Thus,
a photo of a tank might be captioned "10,000 gal (40 rn3)
t a n k " rather than "10,000 gal (37.854 m3) tank."
Using the tables:
Everything in the same row is equal. For example:
l'=12"=0.3 m=30 cm.

H o w units are dealt with in this book:

A n y measurement clearly expressible without numbers or units is expressed without them (e.g., "an arm's
length").
Where the text flow is too chopped up by non-essential numbers, they are relegated to footnotes. I skipped
metric conversions of pipe sizes in the text. They are all
here.
Measurements for examples or construction plans are
expressed in the national units where I think most tanks

FLOW

LENGTH /HEIGHT

Feet
ff
1
0.08
3.28

Inches
in"
12
1
39.37

Meters
m
0.30
0.025

Centimeters
cm
30
2.5
100

Long as... your foot

Long as 1st knuckle of the thumb
A long stride

AREA

Square
meters
m2

Square
feet
ft2

1
0.09
4,047
10,000

10.76
1
43,560
107,639

P I P E SIZES

Acres
ac

Vi"

0.405
1

VOLUME

Cubic
meters
Liters
m*
L
1
1,000
0.001
1
0.00387
3.78
0.0283
28.3
1,233 1,233,482
0.2
200
113,562
113
0.00235
2.35
1

Gallons
264.17
0.26
1
7.48
325,851
55
30,000
0.62

Cubic
foot
ft3
35.3
0.0353
0.134
1
43,560
7.06
4,010
0.0829

15 mm

3/4"

I
1
2.47

Metric

US

Hectares
ha

20 mm

1"

25 mm

1-U"
1 -W

32 mm

2"

50 mm

TURBIDITY / VISIBILITY /

2-W

65 mm

SUSPENDED SOLIDS

3"

80 mm

40 mm

4"

100 mm

6"

150 mm

12"

300 mm

A cube 40" on a side

liter is slightly more than a quart
1 US gal = 0.833 Imperial gal

11A

1 acre foot (af)

Big plastic or steel drum
Standard suburban swimming pool
1" of rain on 1 ft2
1 mm of rain on 1 m2

PRESSURE

Abbreviations: Atmospheres (aim), Pounds per square inch (psi), Kilopascals (kPa)
atm

psi

kPa

Feet

Meters

14.70

101

33.9

10.3

1O.O68O
0.0099
0.0295
0.0978

1
0.145
0.433
1.42

6.89
1
2.99
9.80

2.31
0.334
1
3.28

0.703
0.102
0.305
1

6.80

100

689

231

70.3

1.70

25

172

57.7

17.6

An industrialized world household of four

uses roughly a 1 m3 a day of water.
A non-industrialized world household of
ten uses roughly 1 m3of day.
Abbreviations: Gallons per minute (gpm),
Cubic feet per second (fP/sec), Liters per
minute (Ipm), Cubic meters per day (m3/day),
Acre-feet per year (afy)
gpm
ftVsec
1pm
m 3 /day
afy
1
0.00222
3.79
1.61
5.45
448
1
1699
2,446
723
0.26 0.000589
1
1.44
0.43
0.183 0.000408 0.694
1
0.296
0.620 0.00138
2.34
1
3.38

A l"xl" column of air from the Earth

to space in height weighs 14.7 lbs
Each 2.31' adds 1 psi of pressure
Each foot adds 0.433 psi of pressure
Each meter adds about 10 kPa
Max pressure for household plumbing,
ideal static pressure for fire hoses
Min. pressure for washer,
demand heater valves
90

NTU (Nephelometric turbidity unit):

A measurement of the amount of
light scattered/absorbed as it passes
through water. This equates with underwater visibility, which depends
on the amount of suspended solids
(turbidity) in the water.
If the visibility is over 10', the turbidity is probably under 1 NTU (the
drinking water standard). If the visibility is a hundred feet, the turbidity
is probably below 0.1 NTU.4

T A N K AND CONCRETE FORMULAS 6

r = radius
d = diameter
h = height
it = 3.14
Circumference of a circle = 7td
Area of a circle = nr2
Volume of a cylinder = ra^h
Surface area of a cylinder = 2(7tr2)+7tdh
Volume of a sphere = 4/3(rcr3)
Surface area of a sphere = Axr1
Volume of a hemisphere = 2/3(7tr3)
Surface area of a hemisphere = 2jir2

 Point loadsThese include people walking on the

roof and floor, rocks poking into the underside of the
floor, cars running into the side, kids with ice picks,
yahoos using your tank for target practice...
Earthquake loadsThese can topple the tank onto its
side, slide it sideways off a footing, knock over water
towers, or simply shake the bejeebers out of the tank
until the sides split open.

This section gets a bit technical. If this puts you o f f ,

not to worryjust skip it (if you're not building a tank
or building one under 1,000 gal/3.8 m3); or skim it, and
glean what you do from it (if you're building a tank up to
30,000 gal/ 113 m3.) If you're building a bigger tank, hire
an engineer and an experienced contractor.
F o t o s

Fiberglass
tank split open
by an earthquake on the
big island of
Hawaii.

on Tanks

A tank has to resist a variety of forces structurally:

Water pressureActs at right angles to every
surfacepushing down on the floor, out on the walls,
up on the roof (if the roof space is filled with water).
Water pressure is directly proportional to depth alone.
If you are building your own storage with a water column deeper than 6', be careful. For water deeper than
8', you should have an engineer involved with the
design. (See also Hoop Stress, next page.)

Wind loadsThese can blow over an empty tank or

(in the case of very high winds) spear it with flying
debris or crush it with falling trees.
Gravity loadsIf the tank is supported unevenly, the
floor can crack or the sides split under the strain. This
can happen if the earth under the tank settles unevenly, is washed out from under the tank by water, turns
to squishy muck, or heaves with frost or big roots.
Ice loadsIf thick ice forms on the water surface inside a tank, and then the water level falls, ladders and
interior pipes can be ripped right out of the tank walls.
If pipes, fittings, or the whole tank freeze solid, they
can split open.
Soil loadsBuried tanks can be subjected to intense
inward and / or upward pressures (see Buried Storage,
p. 31).

FIGURE 3 2 : PRESSURE DEPENDS ON WATER DEPTH ALONE

Equal water level

A flexible floor, stiff floor, cylindrical walls, and

domed roof all work totally differently structurally:
All a flexible floor has to do is not puncture or tear
The earth (or gravel on top of earth) supports a flexible floor. Providing it is flexible enough to conform
to whatever degree of unevenness is present in the
supporting ground, the force on it is minimal. It is
not being stretched, bent, or sheared, just gently compressed between the water and earth. How gently?
The floor of an 8' deep (2.4 m) tank is pressed down
just 4 psi (28 kPa), and the earth presses back an equal
amount. Saran wrap could probably resist this force.
A stiff floorOn the other hand, can develop tremendous bending forces if it is supported unevenly.
If a portion of the floor of a big tank is cantilevered
out over wet, squishy soil which is doing nothing to
support the tank, it is up to the floor to resist many
tons of water that is trying to crack the concrete slab.
Ironically, an 8" thick (20 cm), steel-reinforced concrete
slab might fail in this circumstance, while a thin, flexible pond membrane probably would stretch to conform to the new shape and be fine.

Which gauge
will read higher
pressure?
(Answer below)

jo ?
sjsjn^j yuei J9M0j 943 /ijun 'puoose e JOJ.
aunssgjd

ames gi\% R\%oey.9 peau //;M tem

91

Because the walls in a redwood tank are free to move

away from the floor slightly when the hoops are
stressed, there is no shear between the floor and walls,
and the force is just as in this ideal equation.
If the walls are rigidly attached to the floor, the loading at the bottom is a combination of tension, bending,
and shear (the latter concentrated at the wall-to-floor
joint). This requires extra reinforcement in the case of
rigid materials such as steel or ferrocement. (Plastic just
stretches a tiny bit extra until the shear is negligible and
the material is mostly in tension.)
In a ferrocement tank, the walls can't shift away from
the floor. They bend, putting shear stress in the material
but reducing hoop stress. Also, lath and hardware cloth
prevent even fine cracks in the plaster, so the plaster
actually can (and does) carry quite a bit of the tension
load. Because of these factors, the rebar spacing does
not have to be as close as if it were taking 100% of the
tension load.
There are three strategies to strengthen the base of
the walls and the wall-to-floor joint in a ferrocement
tank:

If you make a stiff floor, you've got to also make it

really strong. One way to make the floor stronger is
to give it a conical or dish shape (see shape discussion, below, and the sidebar Tempting Floor Shape
Innovations, p. 112).
Cylindrical walls are placed in tension (pulling) by
water pressureWalls of a bought tank will be fine,
as the manufacturer engineers them and your installation won't change the loading (unless the overflow
plugs, causing the tank to be pressurized like the one
that is about to explode in Figure 32). There is more on
designing your own walls under Hoop Stress, below.
A domed roof takes advantage of the fact that materials are much stronger in compression (squeezing)
than in bendingPeople walking on a flat roof stress
it through bending, while a domed roof supports people walking on it mostly in compression. The domed
shape uses the strength of the material to best advantage, as most materials are much stronger in compression than bending. A conical roof (or floor) resists
loads in a combination of bending and compression.

"Hoop stress" is the

term for the loading on a
cylinder which is being
pushed out evenly in
all directions from the
inside. This push tries to
stretch the cylinder walls
in tension. This is the
dominant way tank walls
are loaded, by water
pressure from the inside.
The "hoop stress" on tank
walls under pressure is
proportional to the depth
of the water and the
diameter of the tank.
o = EL
t

Increase the rebar spacing and size near the bottom

of the wall.
Increase the thickness of the wall near the bottom
Using fatter rebar automatically increases the thickness of the plaster inside the armature, and the
plasterers can be instructed to make the coverage
thicker near the bottom.
Fatten the joint between the floor and wall inside
and outWith a fillet (radiused infill of the corner) of
plaster.

Tension

Compression

Pending/shear

t
f

Hoop

Doubling the depth doubles the stress; doubling

the diameter does the same. Hoop stresses on tanks of
10,000 gal (38 nf) and more are considerable; do not
skimp on reinforcement in a home-built tank. Figure 43,
p. 114, shows rebar spacing for different depth tanks.
Our Tank Calculator gives hoop stress values for any
size tank.6

stress

Resulting
\ hoop stress
. (tension) in
J. material

Where:
O, is the hoop stress
p is the water pressure
r is the tank radius
t is the wall thickness

If you are building a tank, you must consider the

wall forces, and size the tension members of the lower
wall to withstand the applied forces with a safety factor of at least two. If the walls are free to move at the
bottom, they will be loaded in pure tension by outward
water pressure (that is, the water will be trying to stretch
the wall apart). Plastic and steel do very well resisting
loads in pure tension. In fact, plastic, which is not an
especially strong material, can withstand thousands of
pounds of tension in a water tank.
In a redwood tank, the hoop stress is taken entirely
by the hoops. The hoop vertical spacing is adjusted
so all the hoops are equally loaded (see photo, p. 45).

92

Size mattersThe forces on big tanks are tremendously greater. A 1,000 gal (3.8 in3) tank can be built
totally seat-of-the-pants by anyone. Medium sized
tanks (10,000 gal/38 m5) require some head scratching.
Large tanks (over 30,000 gal/110 m3) should be professionally engineered.
Not only are the forces greater, the consequences of
failure are greater, too. I was asked to design a 100,000
gal (380 in') tank in a steep, narrow valley in highland
central Mexico. The tank would be located in an active
earthquake zone a short distance from Popocatepetl,
an active volcano. If it were to fail catastrophically, the
resulting tidal wave would obliterate at least the nearest house, and possibly kill several people. Fortunately,
I was able to instead help the community conserve
enough water that the tank was not necessary.
Smaller things act much strongerBecause the
loads on bigger things are proportionally bigger. Thus,
a small diameter polyethylene pipe can contain a column of water a hundred feet deep (30 in), while a big
polyethylene tank can't be much taller than a person
before the pressure bursts it.
Shape mattersThe shape determines how the material will resist the applied force and thus how easy it
will be to resist a given load. For example, a snow load
bends a flat roof but puts the material in a domed roof
under compression. A membrane roof would stretch
concave, under tension. Here are some general guidelines for thinking about how shape affects structural
integrity:

Uniformly stressed structures are strongerA wall

that tapers toward the top and flares toward the bottom is stressed evenly, as there is more material where
there is more stress. It would thus be harder to snap
the wall off its footing than if it had uniform thickness
throughout, in which case all the stress concentrates at
the bottom.
Shorter spans are much strongerFor example, a flat
roof that is supported by a central pillar is four times
stronger than one that spans the whole diameter of the
tank without interior support.
Shapes that enclose more volume with the same
amount of material are stronger, up to a pointFor
example, a tube is stronger than a solid rod, and a
bigger, thinner-walled tube is stronger than a smaller,
thicker-walled tube. This holds true until the walls are
so thin they buckle. Note: This is true for
compression,
bending and twisting, but not tension. For tension, the
shape doesn't matter, only the amount of material.

: Compound curves are inherently strongestAs in a

dome, sphere, or urn.
Simple curves are strongAs in cylindrical tank
walls.

: Folded planesStronger than flat planes, as in a

cone, or a peaked roof compared to a flat roof, or corrugated compared to flat sheet steel.
Triangles are stronger than straight piecesAs in a
roof truss compared to a beam.

: Thicker, taller piecesStronger than thin or flat

pieces in bending. A load on a wide, flat piece of
wood will bend it much more than it would bend the
same piece stood on edge.
Jar-style tank made of finger-thin, unreinforced
sand/cement stucco. Compound curves and smaii size allow this
tank to resist water loads and even careful transport in a
truck. The bottom has the dish shape shown on p. 112. This
one is dO ga\ (300 ! ). Unreinforced jars can be up to 270
gal (lOOO I ).

ORIENTATION CHANGES STRENGTH

11-1

2sr

L U i

93

MP^codJk

Polyamide Epoxy

(S

There is evidence that epoxy coatings leach various

toxic additives into water. The observed leaching decreases
exponentially over time.

unfi Plfesfincss

Polycarbonate/Lexan (PC #7-other)

This is supplemental information on the health and

environmental issues with plastics used for water containers, storage, or plumbing. The more basic information and
the details on the most commonly used materials can be
found under Tank Materials/Plastic, p. 45, and in Table 7:
Characteristics of Different Tank Materials, p. 40. If you
really want to get into it, you can download the research
notes behind this section.6 These consist of pages and pages
of abstracts of studies and web links on leaching from
all materials (not just plastics), permeation, disinfection
byproducts, and bacterial regrowth.
This section is organized roughly from most to least recommended material. The name is followed by the plastic's
abbreviation and the recycling code number, common uses,
recommended uses, and recyclability.

Used in 5 gal water bottles, some baby bottles, some

metal can linings, and popular Nalgene backpacker's
water bottles.
Valued for its high strength and the fact that it doesn't
impart a taste to water. Unfortunately, polycarbonate can
release its primary building block, bisphenol-A, a suspected hormone disrupter, into liquids and foods. This leaching
worsens as the material ages and degrades.

Acrylonitrile Butiadene Styrene (ABS)

Not used for water tanks, or potable water plumbing.
It is used for drain plumbing, and occasionally do-ityourselfers will incorporate it in water supply systems.
The manufacture of ABS generates hazardous materials,
including carcinogens. ABS is difficult to recycle, and is
considered only marginally better than PVC (see below) in
terms of environment and health effects.

Biologically Based Polymers

Hopefully in the future, there will be water storage and
plumbing components made of bio-based polymers, but
I'm unaware of any available now.

Cross-Linked Polyethylene (PEX)

Cross-linking makes PEX more durable than HDPE.
There is concern that it leaches MTBE and benzene into
water, and also that the pipes may prematurely decay and
rupture, releasing flammable material that would allow a
fire to quickly spread through the building. PEX should not
be exposed to sunlight.

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE #2)

HDPE is the preferred plastic for water tanks (for which
it is the most commonly used material) and water lines, for
which it is rare. It is relatively innocuous in its manufacturing, use, and disposal, at least compared to other plastics.
(See Tank Materials/HDPE, p. 46, for more info.)

Fiberglass (Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyester,

GRP)

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE #4)

Used in food storage bags and some "soft" bottles.
From a health and ecological standpoint, it is the same as
HDPE (above).

Fiberglass tanks are very strong, lightweight, and noncorrosive. Fiberglass is quite a bit stronger and more expensive than HDPE and generally considered to be higher
quality. It is certainly superior to HDPE for underground
tanks due to its high strength. Exceptionally nasty solvents
are used in the resin used to make fiberglass. The literature
is strangely silent on its health effects, but I'd be nervous
about leaching of residual solvents.

Polypropylene (PP #5)

Used in rigid containers, including some baby bottles,
and some cups and bowls. Comparable to HDPE in health
and environmental pedigree.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE/PET #1)

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC orV, #3)

Used for most clear beverage bottles. The best combination of good taste, shatter-resistance, light weight, and
acceptable environmental and health issues for small,
portable water bottles of 1 gal or less.

Used in waterbed bladders and other flexible liners,

some soft bottles, food cling wraps, and rigid pipe.
The manufacturing and installation impacts of PVC are
so bad there is serious discussion of banning it. However,
rigid PVC does seems to take a break from wreaking major
environmental and health damage while it is in service.
Rigid PVC in the shade does not seem to leach much into
the water (but see discussion of issues with flexible PVC
and PVC in sunlight, p. 39). When it is time to dispose of
PVC, things get ugly again.
It is possible to eliminate PVC piping, using HDPE,
copper, brass, or galvanized instead. Plumbers are universally adapted to using PVC for tank plumbing details,
while HDPE tubing requires the invention or learning of
new techniques. I hope that future editions of this book
will show fewer PVC details and more of other types.

Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM)

EPDM is commonly used for pond liners. It is a synthetic rubber resistant to heat, ozone, and UV light. It is able
to stretch quite a bit without tearing. There is little data
on leaching of EPDM, although it is generally considered
to be pretty inert. It is considered a more environmentally
friendly building material than PVC. (See Tank Materials/
EPDM, p. 46, for more info.)

94

ferrocement can be used to make creative shapes and

details.
: Detailed plans for heavy-duty ferrocement constructionFor a 30,000 gal (110 m3) cistern, which can
be adapted to tanks of 3,000-30,000 gal (11-110 in3)
capacity, and with the aid of an engineer, tanks up to
100,000 gal (380 m3).
Ferrocement tanks consist of an armature (framework) of steel reinforcing, covered with a sand-cement
plaster. They offer near-complete flexibility in shape.
They have a long life, are cost-competitive when contractor-built, and are owner-buildable in both industrialized and non-industrialized countries.
This section describes how to build ferrocement
tanks with various techniques, to a variety of standards
and sizes of 250-30,000 gal (1-10 in3). With the aid of an
engineer you could adapt the plans up to a 100,000 gal
(380 m3) tank. For more on the advantages and characteristics of ferrocement tanks, see Tank Materials/
Ferrocement, p. 41.
The existing literature on ferrocement tanks is sparse,
and each document is narrowly focused: one particular
size of one design, or a variety of designs but all for
the context of non-industrialized nations. The heavyduty ferrocement construction technique described
herewhich is suitable for large tankshas not been
described in the literature before to my knowledge.
This appendixpractically a book in itselfis
unique in that it describes the full range of ferrocement
techniques in one place, and reconciles some enormously disparate opinions and techniques into a coherent
formulary.
From procedures for ultra-light-duty tanks that use
the absolute minimum of material, to tanks built successfully by native women with no construction experience, to detailed procedures for building large tanks to
last a lifetimeyou can glean the best approach for your
context.
In the do-it-yourself, innovative spirit of ferrocement,
this appendix gives you not only recipes but numerous
variations and ideas for promising innovations, so that
you can follow a recipe or concoct your own to suit:

I suggest you read this whole appendix before

designing anything. You'll see the huge difference that
perfection standard and context make (see p. 4), and the
even bigger difference that tank size makes. This will
help you to make the perfect design adaptations for
your context.
The heavy-duty ferrocement technique, which is by
far the most complicated, has the most detailed instructions and drawings. Much can be learned from that
section that will apply to simpler projects. For example,
there is a complete tool list there. (All the tools on that
list which don't have an asterisk are needed for the other
methods as well as heavy-duty ferrocement.)

Don't Get in Over Your Head

Ferrocement requires a certain amount of manual
skill, and any big construction project requires a certain amount of organization and management skill.
Structural sensibility is a great help, too. (Reading
Appendix B on structural considerations is highly recommended, especially for big tanks. Difficulties go up
dramatically with the size of the tank.)
The instructions we offer here are fairly detailed, and
will give you an enormous boost over figuring this stuff
out on your own, or from any other source we know of.
However, in a project of this nature, there is still going
to be plenty of stuff you're just going to have to figure
out. If you don't feel confident about taking on a tankbuilding project after reading this section, I suggest you
consider buying or salvaging a tank instead of attempting to build one. If you feel only modestly confident, I
suggest you start with a modest-sized tanksay 1,000
gal (3.8 in3)and see how that goes before sinking tens
of thousands of dollars into the construction of a huge
tank.

Plans for Jumbo Thai JarAn 800 gal (3 in3) lightduty cistern, which can be adapted to make containers
of this shape of 250-800 gal (1-3 in3).
Description of ultra light-duty ferrocementFor
cisterns up to 3,000 gal (11 m3) in size in the nonindustrialized world.

: Plans for light-duty ferrocement10,000 gal (38 in3)

cistern, adaptable for inexpensive, non-industrialized
nation-style cisterns of 500-10,000 gal (1.9-38 m3).
Construction photos of medium-duty, urn-shaped,
ferrocement cisternFor a 3500 gal (23 m3) cistern,
which can be used in conjunction with the heavyduty ferrocement construction plan to guide the
construction of medium-duty construction cisterns of
500-15,000 gal (1.9-57 m3). These also illustrate how

Design Innovation
Ferrocement construction is a relatively unexplored
field, open for innovation and improvement. As I
synthesized a wide variety of ferrocement techniques to
create this appendix, cross-pollination between different
techniques occurred. Some sources had, for example,
brilliant structural analyses; others had ingenious timesaving construction techniques. I've exercised my best
design discretion in taking insights from one source
and applying them to other techniques. This is how I've
handled it:

95

 Unequivocal improvements with a low likelihood of

significant implementation difficultiesHave been
put into the main narrative and drawings. In actual
practice, there may be some minor differences. (If you
think you've run into one, I hope you'll let us know.)
Promising but more experimental improvements
That may require more than the usual level of head
scratching to build successfully are given in the form
of sidebars and separate drawings.
These prospective improvements have mostly been
done in some form, but often not at the same scale or
together in the same tank. For example, people have
made buried half-sphere tanks in Africa, and people
have made tanks with hemispherical roofs in California,
but to my knowledge no one has put the two halves

together to make a totally spherical ferrocement tank.

Would some major unanticipated problem be encountered making a sphere? Seems unlikely, but there
certainly could be.
You'll have to be the ultimate judge of the advisability
of these innovations for your project.
I see this as a two-way forum for innovation. I hope
you will take good photos of your project and let us
know what worked and didn't, and what new ideas you
come up with. We'll pay you for anything we broadcast
through subsequent editions of this book or our website.
(You can also check oasisdesign.net/ water / storage for
updates to this section.)

Ultra-Light Fevroc&ftiesit w i r
These plans from the Intermediate Technology
Development Group18 are for the construction of an 800 gal
(3 m3) tank. It can be scaled to build tank sizes from 250 to
800 gal (1-3 m3). The shape is extremely efficient structurally
and for use of materials, and it's beautiful, too. This construction system has been highly successful in non-industrialized
nations, especially Thailand, where there are millions of the
250 gal (1 m3) version of this tank. It can be done with minimal masonry skills. For sizes 250 gal (1 m3) and smaller, you
can omit the steel reinforcement.
A technique common in non-industrialized nations
is to use a form for backing. A form enables minimally
skilled masons to do the work, enables the mix to go
on more thickly and evenly, and helps slow curing (one
side is kept from losing water by the form, and you
can wrap the other with plastic). There are many form
systems, used for tanks of up to a few thousand gallons
(10 m3). One form system involves pouring concrete
between two sets of steel shutters (see photo, p. 44).
Another involves stretching chicken wire and thick wire
over a corrugated, galvanized, one-sided form. The
drawback of using a form is that you've got to make it,
and the economics are better if it can be reused for many

tanks.
My favorite form system is the Thai Jar, which incorporates a shape with strength-enhancing compound
curves, and has a narrower diameter near the bottom to
reduce hoop stress. The form is so simple that it could
make sense even if you're only making one tank. In sizes
of 250 gal (1 m3) and smaller, it can be made without
steel reinforcement. In sizes of 55 gal (200 L) and smaller,
it can be made in the same shape out of fired clay

Sew the Mold

The mold (form) is made of 15 m of canvas 1.2 m
wide, consisting of five side panels and one floor panel
sewn together with strong thread and overlaps of 10 cm
on all joints (see Figure 33).
To make a mold, start by drawing a side panel in full
size on the canvas and cut it accordingly. Use this side
panel to mark the other four side panels and cut them.
Finally, cut the floor panel, and then sew all six panels
together.
Make space for a string to be pulled and tied for the
manhole at the top of the mold.

Foundation
The jar edge should be situated 90 cm from the wall
of the house (if it is to be used for rainwater harvesting).
The radius of the foundation is 75 cm. Draw the circumference of the foundation using a string tied to a peg at
the center point of the jar.
Dig out soil within the circle until firm soil is
reached, or the height of the eave of the roof is 220 cm.
Level the excavation (or make it dome-shapedsee p.
93,112).
Fill the excavation with 10 cm of concrete 1:3:4 (cement: sand: gravel); make it level and compact it well.

96

FIGURE 3 3 : 3 M 3 JAR M O L D

TABLE 1 0 : BILL OF MATERIALS F O R 3 M 3 FERROCEMENT JAR

Item

118

Dimensions
are in cm

1 floor panel

5 side panels

Materials
Cement
Lime
Sand
Crushed stone
Rubble stones
Bricks/blocks
Water

50 kg (110 lb)
25 kg (55 lb)
Coarse and clean
10-20 mm (,39"-.79")
100-500 mm
Variable
200 liters (53 gal)

PVC pipe

50 mm (1.97")

: Galvanized pipe

38 mm (I-V2")

Galvanized pipe

18 mm (%")

Tap, elbow, nipple,

and socket
Galvanized wire
Chicken mesh

18 mm (W)

Mosquito mesh

Mold

j Hardware cloth

Rope

Specification

Canvas reusable for

10 jars
Labor

Rope
Sand

stitched

Bags
Bags
Tons
Tons
Tons
Number
Oil
drums
Meters
(Feet)
Meters
(Feet)
Meters
(Feet)
Unit

3 mm (1.18")
25 mm (.98"), 0.9 mm
(.04")
Plastic

Kg
Meters
(Feet)
Meters
(Feet)
Meters
Galvanized 5 mm
(Feet)
(.20")
1.2 m (3.94') wide sewn Meters
(Feet)
into a mold
Skilled masons
Laborers

Mold

Units

Working
days
: Working
i days

QTY

6
1
3
1
1
50
3
3
0.5
0.9
1
5
18
0.5
1
15

1x5
1x5

Total cost $150 (2005) Labor and materials

together

Bucket filled
with sand
The outlet pipe is made of 90 cm of 18 mm galvanized iron pipe onto which an elbow and a nipple are
screwed to the inner end, and a socket and a tap to the
outer end. Place the pipe upon the foundation.

Timbers
Sand
[

Mold

filled with sand

Floor Reinforcement
Cut eight lengths of 7 m-long 3 mm galvanized wire. Bend the wire ends to avoid
injury. Mark the middle of each wire. Tie the
eight wires together at the marks as spokes
in a wheel. Make a ring of 3 mm galvanized
iron wire, 116 cm in diameter, and tie it on
the spokes.
Tie two 136 cm lengths of chicken wire
with overlaps of 10 cm to the ring of wire.
Place the wires and mesh on the foundation.

97

FIGURE 3 4 : FERROCEMENT 3 M 3 T H A I JAR SECTION AND P L A N

Fill the Mold

D I M E N S I O N S IN CM

The mold is then placed on the

foundation and stuffed with light, dry
materials, e.g., sawdust, hay, or dung.
Sand may be used. But since 3 m 3 of
sand weighs about 5 tons, a mold made
of canvas will burst uniess most of the
sand is kept in buckets, stacked on
layers of timbers separating the rows of
buckets (see Figure 33).

Nil (cement paste)

2cm mortar 1:3 inside
Chicken mesh 25mm
16 vertical Gl 3mm wires spaced equally
Spiral of Gl 3mm wire spaced 20cm
2cm mortar 1:3 outside
Whitewash 1 cement: 10 lime

Wall Reinforcement
Chicken wire is wrapped tightly
around the stuffed mold while the
chicken wire lying under the mold is
bent up against the side of the mold.
The 16 wires sticking out from under
the mold are now tied on to a ring of
wire at the top of the mold and spaced
equally.
The end of a roll of 3 mm wire is
tied on to the foundation and wrapped
tightly around the mold as a spiral
spaced 20 cm from the top of the mold.

Drain
Section A-A

External Plaster
Plaster 1:3 (cement: sand) is smeared
onto the mold in a thin layer. After a
couple of hours, more plaster is applied
to the mold until the plaster is 2 cm
thick.
While the plaster cures for three
days, the tap station is built.

A-

Plan

Internal Plaster and Finish

After three days, the mold and its
contents are removed. The jar is cleaned before plaster
1:3 is applied to the internal side of the jar in two layers,
each layer being 1 cm thick. The floor is made of 5 cmthick plaster of 1:3. On the same day, cement and water
are mixed with Nil (a mixture of cement and water
the consistency of porridge) and, with a steel trowel,
pressed into the moist plaster for waterproofing.
Place two concentric rings of plain sheet metal 10 cm
high and 60 cm diameter on top of the jar. Fill the space
with 1:3 plaster to form a manhole and a lip. Place a
pipe for an overflow through the lid. Cover the manhole
with mesh to prevent insects and debris from entering
the jar.

Metric

US
0.12"
0.71"

3 mm
18 m m
25 m m

0.98"
0.39"
0.79"
1.97"
3.94"
7.87"
11.81"

1 cm
2 cm
5 cm
10 cm
20 cm
30 cm
57.8 cm
60 cm
67 cm
70 cm
71.8 cm
75 cm
80 cm
9 0 crn
91,8 c m

98

22.76"
23.62"
26.38"
27.56"
28.27"
29.53"
31.5"
35.43 "
36.14"

Metric
|
I

98 cm
110 cm
114 cm
116 cm
118 cm
122 cm
134 c m
136 c m
150 cm
156 cm
166 cm
200 cm
220 cm
250 cm
7m
15 m
3 mi

US
38.58"
43.31"
4AM"
45.67"
46.46"
48.03"
52.76"
53.54"
59.06"
61.42"
65.35"
78.74"
86.61"
98.43"

22.97'

49.21'
105.94 ft3

FIGURE 3 5 : 3 M 3 JAR CONSTRUCTION

A ring of Gl wire
J A spiral
Gl wire
3mm
spaced
maximum
20 x 32cm

Chicken
wire
3 1 0 c m concrete
J
1:3;4

150

Reinforcement

of wall

Foundation

Gl wire 3mm,
7m long
Chicken
mesh

mortar 1:3
Draw-off
pipe
Reinforcement

External plaster

of floor

Internal
plaster
2cm mortar
1:3 + Nil
Internal plaster and finish
Mold stuffed on foundation

99

3 mm
2 cm
10 c m
20 c m
32 c m
_6) c m
70 c m
75 c m
80 cm
90 c m
130 cm
150 cm

0.12"
079"

3.94"
7.87"
12.60"
2342"
27.5b"
29.53"
31.5"
35,13"
51.18"
59.06"

Ultra-light-duty ferrocement is the way to contain

the most water with the least cement and steel, using
no form, but also with the lowest safety factors and
durability, in tanks of500-2,000 gal (1.9-7.6 nf). It's
an appropriate choice where there are fairly skilled,
patient masons and not enough money to buy a more
adequate amount of material.
In non-industrialized nations there is a great
deal of interest in inexpensive water storage
tanks. Ferrocement is one of the most popular
options. Some of these systems take the amount
of reinforcement and materials right down to the
absolute minimum. Even at this, they are holding up for decades in the field, and catastrophic
failures are rare.
The absolute minimum construction I've
Simple, inexpensive owner-built ferrocement tank in an Indian village in
seen was in Mexico, where the locals were buildMexico, after first coat, and before second. Note how you can see the
ing 2,000 gal (7.6 nr) tanks with an armature of
reinforcing pattern showing through the inadequate cement
coverage.
welded wire mesh covered with 1" chicken wire
just barely hanging there in the breeze, and since most
nothing more. The armature is so floppy that it
masons in non-industrialized nations aren't tuned into
has to be held still and circular-shaped with guy wires
wetting
masonry to slow the curing), another coat is
or strings. To be honest, I've no idea how they get the
added
inside
and outside.
plaster to stick to a single thickness of chicken wire; this
Considering the overly fast curing, abundance of
is well beyond my ability as a mason. I know they use
undesirable cold joints (where cured cement meets fresh
some backingfor example, a piece of plywood held by
cement), likely leak points, minimal reinforcement, and
someone on the opposite side, or plastic bags tied to the
often minimal cement cover over the steel, it is surprisoutside. This technique requires quite a bit of skill, or
ing these tanks hold water. That hundreds of them do,
much of the plaster will end up on the ground. The mix
and do so for about 20 years before they start to leak, is
is about 3:1:1 sand : cement: lime. The total thickness is
testimony to the fundamental robustness of ferrocement.
W to l-Vi".
Once they start to leak, it's not going to be easy to
After this first coat dries (usually too fast, since it is
repair them, only to slow the downhill slide (see photos
at left).
I am intrigued by the ecology of these tanks, the very
low use of materials they offer. With these few refinements, 1 think they could last for perhaps twice as long:

Here a
20 year
old, ultralight-duty
ferrocement
tank gets
a re-piasvering in an
efforv to
slow its disintegration,
with mixed
results.

: Proper curingIs chronically lacking in the masonry

of non-industrialized nations. Diligent covering with
rags and wrapping with plastic, and frequent wetting,
especially on the sunny side, would greatly improve
the strength and longevity of the tank. Reused pallet
wrap (giant, strong Saran wrap, scavenged from the
receiving dock of some warehouse) is the ultimate
slow curing aid.
Thicker mortarThe failure mode seems to be corroding of the chicken wire. Having at least 1 cm of
mortar coverage over all steel would greatly extend
the life of the tank. As a practical matter, this can
probably only be achieved by doing one or more
extra coats of plaster inside and outthe initial coats
can only be so thick, as they aren't really attached to
anything. These could be done rapidly with unskilled
labor, using a soupy mix applied with a mason's
brush.

100

 Extra reinforcement at the b o t t o m

FIGURE 3 6 : 4 6 M 3 L I G H T - D U T Y FERROCEMENT T A N K

To contain higher pressure there and

reduce the chance of leaks in this
most inconvenient of locations. Use
perhaps three turns of thick annealed
wire, a second layer of welded wire
mesh, or one or two hoops of rebar
around the bottom 20% of the tank.
This would almost double the pressure resistance for little added cost.

SECTION AND PLAN (DIMENSIONS IN CM)

These refinements are incorporated

in the Light-Duty Ferrocement Plans,
below. The construction procedure
is similar to that in the Heavy-Duty
Ferrocement Plans described in great
detail later, except that there are two
layers of reinforcement instead of
several.
If you are not a skilled mason and
want to attempt one of these, use
expanded metal lath instead of chicken
wire, and you will have a fighting
chance.

Plans from the Intermediate

Technology Development Group18 for
somewhat more reinforced, but still
lightweight tank of 12,000 gal (4b my),
the maximum size I'd make without rebar.
They can be scaled to build tank sizes from
500-12,000 gal (2-46 in'). This system
has lower safety factors and durability
than medium- or heavy-duty construction,
and is most suited to non-industrialized
nations, where money for material is very
tight. It requires fairly skilled masons.
Approximately 4,000 such tanks
have been built in Kenya, to provide
harvested rainwater for drinking water at rural schools.

Excavation
If the tank is to be used for rainwater harvesting,
the edge of the excavation circle should be at the mid
point of the gable roof of the house, 90 cm from the
house wall and at least 300 cm below the eave of the
roof. In any case, draw a circle from the midpoint
of the tank, with a radius of 285 cm. The excavation
should be at least 300 cm below the eave of the roof
and at least 15 cm deep, or until firm soil is reached.
Make the floor of the excavation level.

101

Welded Wire Mesh for

Floor and Wall

FIGURE 3 7 : 4 6 M 3 FERROCEMENT T A N K R O O F

Wire

Two lengths of 560 cm are cut

from a roll of welded wire mesh
(mesh, henceforth) and tied together to form a square sheet of 560 cm
x 560 cm. The sheet is then cut into
a circle with a radius of 280 cm.
A length of 1,740 cm is cut from
a roll of mesh and tied into a cylinder with a radius of 270 cm.
The vertical wires at the bottom
are bent to each side alternately.
The cylinder is then placed
evenly on the circular sheet and tied
to it with tie wire.

Whitewash 1:10 lime

5cm mortar 1:3
Chicken mesh
BRC mesh
Plastic sacks
Oil-drum sheets

Section

Foundation
Concrete 1:3:4 is mixed and
placed in a 7 cm-thick layer in the
excavation without moistening the
soil. The mesh and outlet pipe are
placed on the concrete.
A 6 cm-thick layer of concrete
1:3:4 is compacted on to the first
layer of concrete and left with a
rough surface.

BRC mesh

Chicken wire is wrapped tightly

around the mesh, twisted, and tied on.
A 3 mm galvanized iron wire is
wrapped tightly four times around the
chicken mesh at floor level, from where it
tinues as a spiral to the top of the mesh, where it
is again wrapped around four times. The spacing of
the spiral is 5 cm at the lower half of the wall and 10 cm
at the top half.
Plastic sacks are hung against the outer side of
the wall and kept tight in place with a spiral of string
starting from the top. Mortar 1:3 is smeared against the
plastic sacks on their inner side. Next day, a 2.5
cm layer of plaster is plastered onto the smear
and floor and finished with nil.
The sacks are removed and the outer wall is
plastered with 2.5 cm of plaster 1:3 sand: cement.

Plan of props

Dome
Erect the formwork and cover the plastic
sacks with mesh. Bend the vertical mesh ends
in the wall over the mesh in the dome. Lightly
compact a 5 cm plaster 1:3 onto the dome while
lifting the mesh into the middle of the plaster.
Use a washbasin as a form for the manhole.
Make 20 cm x 20 cm inlet holes.

102

Oil-drum sheets

FIGURE 3 8 : 4 6 M 3 TANK CONSTRUCTION

Mortar 1:3 with Nil
BRC mesh
Chicken mesh
Spiral of Gl wire 3 m m
Mortar 1:3
Whitewash 1:10 lime

Depth minimum 15cm

and 300cm below roof
X = equal distance

Excavation
Plaster on wall
540cm
\

Wall
210cm x 1240cm
Props to be covered with oildrum sheets and plastic sacks.
Vertical BRC
ends to be bent
oil-drum sheets

Formwork for dome

Mesh for floor and wall
Whitewash
5cm mortar 1:3
BRC mesh

13cm
concrete 1:3:4,
13cm thick

Dome, manhole, overflow and tap

Foundation
Metric
6 cm
13 c m
15 c m
20 cm
30 cm
60 c m
70 cm
90 cm
100 cm
200 cm
210 cm
270 cm
28Q_cm
285 cm
300 cm
540 cm
560 cm
570 cm
1,120 c m
1.240 cm

Cover the finished dome with plastic sacks weighed

down by sand or soil. Do not walk on the dome for
seven days, after which the formwork can be removed.

Inlets, Overflow, and Tap

Build the inlets and install the overflow pipe over
the tap-stand, which can be closed with a door. Seal the
joint between dome and wall.

103

US
2.36"
5.72"
5.90"
7.87"

11.81"
23.62"
27.56"
35.43"

39.37"
6' b.7"
6' 10.7"
8' 10.3"
9' 2.7" ^
9' 4.?"
9' 70.1"
V 8.6"
18'4.4"
18'8.4"
3b' 8.9"
40'8.2" 1

TABLE 1 1 : BILL OF MATERIALS FOR

A 4 6 M 3 FERROCEMENT TANK

Item

Specification

Units

Qty

Materials
Cement 50 kg
Lime 25 kg
Sand Coarse and
clean

Bags
BaSs

Tons

..

50
2
10

Crushed stone 10-20 mm

Tons

Rubble stones 100-500 mm

Tons

Bricks /blocks! Variable

Number

50

Oil drums

35

Meters

33

Chicken mesh 25 mm, 0.9 mm Meters

80

Water 200 liters

BRC mesh No. 65
Twisted iron 12 mm (Vi")

Meters

G.I. wire 3 mm

Kg

25

G.I. pipe137 mm (l-Vi")

Meters

1.8

Meters
Unit

3.4
1

Meters
Meters
Meters

3
3
1

Meters

0.5

0.9x1.5 m

G.I. pipe 18 mm (%")

Tap, elbow, nipple, and 18 mm PA")
socket
PVC pipe 100 mm (4")
PVC pipe 50 mm (2 ")
Fine mesh Galvanized 5
mm
Mosquito mesh Plastic
Lockable door Steel

Labor Skilled masons Working

days

2x14

Working
days

3x14

Meters

36

Meters
Number

46
50

Sisal twine
Kg
Bolts 6x120 mm Number

5
12

Number

29

Laborers
Formwork
Reusable for 30 tanks
Timber, bolts, sheets, etc. 6"xl" timber
for dome 2"x3" timber
Plastic bags

Oil-drum
sheets

Number
Manhole Plastic basin
Materials and labor
Cost $1,200 (2005)

Many people have asked for plans for our 3500 gal (13 m3)
urn-shaped ferrocement tank (big cover photo). These photos
show its construction, and how you can bend the armature to
get unique shapes in ferrocement. The construction technique
shown is applicable to building tanks from 1,000-15,000
gal (3.8-5.7 in3), in industrialized and non-industrialized
countries.
The most accessible technique for ferrocement in the
industrialized world is the use of expanded metal lath
over a rebar framework. I've found this works best with
chicken wire on the other side. The minimum reinforcement is a grid of 3/s" rebar, about a foot on center both
ways.
Everything needs to be tied off really well and tight,
which is a very time-consuming process when done
with wire and pliers. There is a certain technique to getting it tight and doing it fast (see photos for an idea to
get you started).
A somewhat skilled mason can plaster it by hand,
pushing through the chicken wire onto the lath. After
this structural coat dries, it generally needs at least one
other coat on each side, followed by any color or sealer
coats you wish to add.
Tanks made by this technique often "weep" due to
the unavoidably large number of cold joints. However,
these small leaks usually seal up with mineral deposits
before long, and in any case they are usually so small
they don't even drip.
A similar technique is often used to make artificial
rocks and pools in zoos. The inside of the "rocks" is
often left unfinished; if you look in there you can see
the lath and rebar. Again, it is amazing this construction
lasts, but it does.
Some of the unusual features that worked well on
this tank are:
The shape and colorThe neighbors like it so
much more than we dared think, that I wish I'd
made it taller, so it would serve as a hedge.
Water-harvesting wingsCatch rain, and allow
about 300 gal (1 m3) of dirty house roof wash water
to be stored separately, on top of the tank.
Many inlets and outlets made from PVCWith
sawn-in crisscrosses, none of which leak.
Hidden inlet pipePasses through the tank floor
and roof.
OverflowGoes in a wide, thin waterfall across
several feet of wing (looks very cool).
Sloped floor and drain sumpMake cleaning very
easy.
Reduced visual massDue to partial burial.

104

FERROCEMENT U R N CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE

1. The site, before

digging.

4. Concrete Ming "X" of trenches

grade beams to reinforce floor.

7. bending the rebar

makes

verticals.

10. Bending and tying off the roof

rebar.

2. Grading the excavation with slope to

the drain, using a water level.

3. Bending and tying rebar for the floor

wall in background is ferrocement,
too).

5. Pouring the floor.

6. Leveling the floor to 2% slope

and finishing.

&. Circle drawn on driveway as guide for

9. Placing the first rings and then

verticals.

(note

11. Tying off lath (inside) and chicken wire 12. Then pull the hooked end back through, grab
(outside); first make a hook on the end of it with linesman's pliers, twist, then cut the tie
the wire, push it through...
off your spool of wire.

14. Check
that every inch
is tied off
tight.

13. Leave a door in the side until the last

minute; save lots of awkward climbing.

105

15. Plaster
the built-in
ladder first
and when it
dries you'll
be able to
get in and
out easier
after sealing
off the temporary door.

77. Plaster
outside.

1&. Plaster

inside.

19. Lath roof looks cool.

13. Altar detail over tap, formed from lath.

20. White Thoroughseal to eeai inside.

Pipes are concealed inlets on way to roof.

21. Check out your piaster colors carefully, with big swatches... we measured to
the gram on a postal scale, then multiplied for big batches.

Ideas for Doing This More

Easily than We Did
The way we made this tankplastered
all by hand, and with lots of details
caused it to be very labor-intensive. The
curves and sculptural details are inherently more work, but other extra time
was unnecessary. If I were to do it again,
I'd make the following changes, most of
which are described in the Heavy-Duty
Ferrocement plans on the next page.
Join lath and chicken wire with hog

ringsInstead of wire.
: Mix the plaster in a machine and

apply it by pumpThe armature

might need a layer or two of welded
wire mesh to make this practical; it
was on the floppy side and if you
shook it or put plaster on too thick,
it would slump off.
: Make a smaller construction ac-

cess passageAnd seal it up before

plastering.

22. Apply color coat (see color photo on front cover).

Use regular rebarInstead of

epoxy-coated rebar, which is great

stuff but probably overkill if the cement coverage is at least M>" (1.25 cm)
and there is lath or chicken wire on
both sides.
106

Wmmmmmfc Plans
These are detailed plans for constructing a 30,000 gal (110
m3) tank, which can be scaled from 3,000 to (with the help of
an engineer) 100,000 gal (1 1-380 m3). This technique has the
highest safety factors and longevity. It is most suited to an
industrialized nation context and tanks of greater than 30,000
gal in non-industrialized countries.
Since all the masonry can be hired out, in theory
this kind of tank could be built even if you don't have
any masonry experience at all. I'd say the gamble in
materials for a large tank seems too big to me to attempt
without extensive prior construction experience.
People who make ferrocement tanks for a livingespecially large onesquickly tired of all the tedious labor
and have come up with some innovations which conserve a huge amount of time and improve the results.
The main innovations are:
A thicker, stronger armatureThat works for tanks
up to 100,000 gal and can support wet plaster applied from the top down.
Numerous time-saving detailsSuch as the use of
hog ring pliers (manual and pneumatic) in place of
pliers and wire.
Plastering the whole thing in one dayTo make
a totally cold-joint-free tank, using a plaster mixer
and a pump (or a large crew doing it by hand).
The extra materials cost of heavy-duty ferrocement is
considerable, but not only does this method save a great
deal of time; it makes a stronger, more waterproof tank
by eliminating cold joints. If you can afford the extra
materials in the armature and hiring a crew to plaster it,
this is by far the preferred way to make a ferrocement
tank of 3,000-100,000 gal capacity.
We're going to describe the tools and materials
needed, and then describe in detail the construction sequence for this way of making a tank. Read this through
all the way a few times and don't start your tank until
and unless it makes perfect sense. A tank bigger than a
few thousand gallons is way too big of a project to screw
up. If you want to make a big tank, but feel uneasy
about following this procedure, I suggest you make a
smaller one first to get familiar with the process. (See
Figure 26, p. 73, Plumbing Options for Multiple Tanks.)
Also, I suggest you carefully read the Appendix B, p.
91, Tank Loads and Structural Considerations, as well.
Especially if you are building a 30,000 gal or bigger tank,
it is essential that you have a good grasp of the structural considerations before diving in.
Note: This procedure is so geared to US materials, methods, and context, we've elected not to clog the text with metric
conversions and materials. Most of the conversions can be
found in Appendix A, p. 90.

Many
thanks to Paul
Kemnitzer,21
ferrocement
tank pioneer, on
whose 22 years'
experience most
of this section
is based. He can
be reached at
(805) 451-5153
or pabloteebs@
gmail.com.

Tools
In approximate order of appearance...
Tape measuresMeasure twice, cut once
Water levelFor leveling floor
StringFor marking radius, levels
LevelFor checking angle on drainpipe, floor, plumb on
walls
Flat shovel, pickFor site prep
^Digging barFor site prep, levering the armature up to
put the dobies underneath
PVC sawTo cut drainpipe
Diagonal cutters or mini-bolt cuttersFor welded wire
mesh
*Hog ring pliersFor hog rings37
*A "Willard" rebar cutter-benderExpensive but very
handy. See if you can borrow one. If not, for cutting, use
a hacksaw, an angle grinder, or a worm drive saw with
a metal blade. For bending, use the next two items below
(which are useful even if you do most bending on the
Willard).
Rebar hickeyFor bending rebar
30" length of 3A" galvanized pipeHandy for bending
rebar
Tie wire swivel tool To manually tie rebar tie wire
Linesman's pliersTo tie off tie wire
Tin snipsTo cut hardware cloth, lath
6' and 8' step laddersTo work on roof and ceiling
*Pneumatic hog ring pliers (Optional) to install the
thousands of wire ties necessary to hold the armature
together tight. Hog ring pliers and/or pneumatic hog ring
guns can be employed for a huge time savings over doing
the whole thing by hand with wire.
Pool trowelsOne per finisher (other trowel types can be
used if that's all you've got)
Wood sawTo cut roof braces to length
*Air compressor(Optional, or C02 tanks to run air tools)

TABLE 1 2 : T A N K MATERIALS AND SPECIFICATIONS BY TANK SIZE

Material
3/ "
8

rebar (20'pieces)
Vi" rebar (20' pieces)
Lath (27"x8' pieces)
6x6x10x10 welded wire mesh (7'x200'rolls)
Vi" Hardware cloth (4'xlOO' rolls)
Tie wire, 6" precut, w/ loops on ends (big bundle)
Cement (94 lb bags)
Plaster sand (yd3)
Water (gal)
Thoroughseal/Bonsai Sure Coat (50 lb bags)
Color (lbs)
Loose hog rings (25 lb boxes)37
Hog ring gun staples (boxes of 10,000)
Dobies
4x4 Poles
Concrete (yd3)
Approximate materials cost (2009)

ea. cost
$6.52
$9.71
$8.30
$290.00
$139.00
$4.60
$9.60
$46.00
$0.01
$32.00
$5.00
$65.00
$65.00
$0.32
$16.50
$262.00

WaterUnder pressure, if possible (or ability to set up pump

to create pressure)
Rubber bootsFor slab work
*Concrete tamperFor getting voids out of slab
*Plaster mixer, pump(Usually comes with a crew of
plasterers) or
Cement mixer, shovels, buckets, wheelbarrowTo mix
plaster by hand
Mason's brushFor applying color coat
5 gal buckets
Heavy rubber gloves

The quantities in Table 12 (above) are approximate.

Concrete, especially, is critical. Calculate the amount for
your tank shape and slab thickness using the formulas
in Appendix A or our Tank Calculator.6 Always order
10-20% more concrete than you calculate that you will
use. Notes on materials:
DobiesTo maintain spacing between floor rebar and the
earth
PolesTo support ceiling: 4x4" or 3" round minimum for
large tanks
Pallet wrapTo wrap tank to slow moisture loss from plaster
Concrete 2:2:3 cement: sand: gravel is a good mix; or
6 sacks per cubic yard when ordering by truck
Plaster1:3 cement: sand should be sufficient (Paul uses 1:2
in his tanks)

Labor
Design, site prepVaries

10,000 gal
50

15,000 gal
60

20,000 gal
70

27
1
1
2
18
4
500
7
5
1
1
50
6
2
$2,238

40
1.25
1.75
2
25
4.5
750
10

50
1.5
2
3
32
5.5
1,000
15
10
1
2
100
15
4.5
$4,287

65
2
3
3
35
7
1,250
17
12
1
2
120
20

7
1
2
75
10
3.5
$3,383

6
$5,417

30,000 gal
50
50
80
2
3
3
50
9
1,500
20
15
2
3
150
40
8
$7,239

Armature prepApproximate times, assuming easy access,

materials already on site, no learning curve delays, no design problems or big mistakes:

2,000 gal tank: three days for two people

5,000 gal tank: four days for two people
50,000 gal tank: three to four weeks for four people
100,000 gal tank: two months for six people

Pouring the floorWith a concrete truck and pumper is

counted as one of the above days
Plaster
with mixer and pump, one day
by hand, up to 20,000 gal in one day with eight
people, two days for larger tanks

* Tools denoted with an asterisk are optional. The other

tools are needed for all ferrocement construction techniques.

Materials

5,000 gal
30

Then you wait a week....

Color coat and clean-upTwo work days separated by a
drying day

Design
Make a detailed drawing of your tank and try as
much as possible to work out any design issues on
paper.
These instructions should enable a handy person
with skilled help on the plastering to make a tank up
to 30,000 gal in size. It can be scaled down to 5,000 or
3,000 gal tanks. Any smaller than that and the degree of
overbuild is ridiculoususe medium-duty ferrocement
construction.
For larger tanks (up to 100,000 gal), you'll want to
engage an engineer to test the soil the tank is going to
be resting on, and to specify the spacing of rebar and the
slab thickness.

Site Prep
Here's a site prep checklist. Access is the first order of
business.

108


: If you can drive a truck right up to the tank site
And have water under pressure and power right
there, that is ideal.
If you can run a plaster pump hoseFrom the closest
vehicle access to the tank site, that will save carrying
the heaviest material.
If the site is walk-in onlyYou can still do it, but
you're going to have to carry everything, as well as
mix and apply the plaster by hand (unless you are
able to pump the plaster, which can be done 350-500'
even uphill).
Pump water to a small temporary tank higher upIf
the terrain permits, you can make a temporary pressurized water system for the tank work site.
If the site is vegetatedYou'll want to clear an area a
few times bigger than the tank, to provide clearance to
work, store materials, and mix plaster.
If the soil has a high clay contentYou'll want to lay
down 6" of compacted road base or gravel to pour the
floor on.

Grade for the Floor

Most of these tanks have been built with a flat floor
and a drain sump at one side. This is significantly easier
to build than a sloped floor, and it is easy enough to
sweep the resulting puddles into the sump during
tank cleaning with a broom. (Check the sidebar on p. 112
for experimental floor options that could save material, add
strength, and make cleaning easier.)
For a flat floor, you just cut a flat space into the earth
to pour on. How evenly do you need to dig? A tolerance
tighter than Vi" perfect is a waste of time.

Where to Apply Your Perfectionism

Ferrocement is a very flexible medium. It is an inappropriate
material with which to attempt the perfect geometric symmetry of a metal or plastic tank. If the tank is slightly oval,
or the roof curve variable, or the walls way out of plumb, it's
really not going to hurt anything. Ditto for an uneven surface
finish. Ferrocement is zoell suited to an organic, artistic sort of
perfectionism, finding the perfectly pleasing asymmetric curve
or pleasing natural boulder shape.
However, there is a role for detail orientation in ensuring
that the armature is securely tied off everywhere, and that the
plaster fills the walls without any voids or cold joints.

rebar containing the pressure, you can put a Vi" thick

ring of bentonite/tar cold joint seal around the pipe.
This will expand with great force if water touches it, and
make a complete seal (or crack the concrete if it is not as
thick as specified). Just before the pipe exits the cistern,
it may be helpful to give it a few turns of insulating
pipe wrap so it can wiggle in the grip of the cistern and
not crack, if the tank shifts under its great weight. The
backfill should be free of rocks that could break the pipe
if this happens.

Floor and Inside Wall: Welded Wire

Mesh

Drain
Now dig a hole for the drain sump, and a trench for
the drainpipe.
The drain sump should be a few inches deeper than
the low point of the floor, and a foot or two around.
However thick the slab is, the excavation will be that
much bigger all the way around.
See Drain, p. 58, for more info and complete specs for
the drain pipe, including leak-prevention measures: it is
critical that the tank not leak where the drainpipe passes
through, as there is no access to do a repair.
The drainpipe should slope 2%. The pipe at the drain
sump end should terminate in a coupling, a 45, a 90, or
a straight coupling. (See Figures 40, 41, p. 112, 113.)
You're going to fill the whole trench with concrete,
with at least 3" around the pipe on all sides, to about 6"
past the tank edge. You can stop the concrete from flowing farther by packing rocks around the pipe. The portion of the pipe that is to be encased in concrete should
be held securely up off the trench floor.
To discourage the concrete from cracking, you can
wrap the pipe in a cylinder of welded wire mesh. The
concrete must adhere perfectly to the pipe for a good
seal. If you've got at least 3" of strong concrete with a

109

Lay strips of welded wire mesh ("mesh" henceforth)

across the entire area of the floor, overlapping the
edges between strips one or two squares (6"-12"), and
extending beyond the perimeter of the tank at least two
squares (see Figure 39, next page). If you've gone with
a conical or domed floor, you may need to cut shorter
strips of mesh and overlap them. All the joints should
be hog ringed together so the mesh sits somewhat flat.
It will be strongest (and the least work) with the longest
strips that can negotiate the shape.
Now cut a strip of full-height (7') mesh to the length
of the circumference of the tank, plus a few feet. Stand
this up to make a cylindrical wall, and jockey it into
position in the circumference line (6" in from the perimeter stakes), hog ringing it all along its bottom edge to
the mesh on the floor.
Now you've got a pretty good indication of what the
final tank is going to look like. If you want to change its
diameter or location, speak now or forever hold your
peace!
You'll also notice that you no longer have a way to
get in and out of the tank.
Cut the smallest door you can get through in the
mesh. The door should start two squares (1') above the
ground and be maybe 2'and 3' high. Some slit polyethylene drip tubing can be placed over the cut edges to
reduce snagging and scraping on body parts.

FIGURE 3 9 : H E A V Y - D U T Y FERROCEMENT ROOF AND FLOOR PLANS

FLOOR PLAN
Scate r=5' (1:60)

Double rebar

Bottom
Outer wall mesh

tied.

Tying off welded wire me eh.

Access
door

Dots are rebars seen

ROOF PLAN

Hog ring pliers and cool magnetic glove loaded with rings.

Center
option

Side access
option

If there's one
shorter space,
put it here _

Pneumatic hog ring gun.

C02 tank to run pneumatic hog

ring pliers without a compressor.

Access can
go anywhere
between wall
and center of
roof

end-on

access

Floor and Wall: Rebar

Experimental Center Drain

The floor and roof can be reinforced with rebar in a

grid or a radial with hoops pattern (Figure 39). Because of
the different ways roofs and floors are loaded, roofs are
stronger with radial rebars and hoops, and floors are
stronger with a grid. If the two systems cross at the floor,
there will be an extra concentration of rebar ends at the
floor to wall joint, where it is most sorely needed. This is
the way I prefer to do it for a tank this size, but either pattern can work for either roof or floor. (Note: if you make
both floor and roof radial, you can run rebars continuously from the middle of the floor to the middle of the
roof, simplifying the construction of small tanks.)
For radial with hoops, bend the rebars into longfooted "L" shapes. Slide the feet of the Ls through the
bottom hole in the mesh (so the feet are on top of the
floor mesh and the verticals are outside the wall mesh).
Now tie them in place to the wall mesh with one double
rebar tie, to keep them from flopping over. The first two
verticals should go on either side of the door. The rest go
along vertical wires on the mesh, every two, three, or four
squares, depending on the size of the tank. Every 2' (four
squares) has proven to be enough for tanks smaller than
20,000 gal, every 18" for up to 30,000 gal, and every foot
for 40,000-100,000 gal.
The feet of the Ls should go to a ring around the drain
sump, with just a few long enough to be bent and cross
under the drain sump to the ring over on the other side.
The vertical pieces can just stick up however far they do.

For a center drain (which is what you'll have with a

conical or round floor, Figure 41) you could either fill
the whole trench with concrete, or backfill around the
pipe with well-compacted, wetted earth or sand, which
will save some concrete, at the cost of some extra diddling. If you do this, you reduce the chance of the pipe
cracking, but increase the chance of the slab cracking
where it spans the trenchperfect compaction is imperative. If you backfill, leave the firstfoot of the pipe
unburied, so it will end up encased in concrete for a
good seal. You can hold the pipe in position by wiring
it to the rebar with wired-on 3 " dobies as spacers
between both the rebar and the earth below.

Tying off expanding metal lath on

FIGURE 4 0 : H E A V Y - D U T Y FERROCEMENT TANK (SECTION)
Scale

r o o f with

bog ring

pliers.

1"=5' (1:60)

Steel lid
Stainless or painted
with welded rebar
tied into
armature
Center access

Inlet
Brass

option

ninety

Tying off welded wire mesh with hog

ring pliers.
Knotted rope
or permanent
ladder
To reduce drowning
hazard

A . . ^ .U . . . ^ . ^ . . .

. . .

| j

1 .

- Floor rebar

Drain4" PVC
SECTION THROUGH FINISHED TANK

-r

ends

SECTION THROUGH STEEL ARMATURE

111

Tempting Floor Shape Innovations

Dished floorOr, go all the way and curve the floor like
a dome roof or the bottom of a glass bottle, and make it 2-3"
thick instead of 6" or 8" (Figure 4 1 !
I've used these floors with great success in unreinforced
stucco (sand: cement) jar tanks of 160 gal (600 L). We slope
the whole bottom so that the gutter around the perimeter flows
toward the drain. We also have the outlet at the high point of
the island in the middle, where it is least likely to suck crud.
This should
scale up fine to
a large tank.
Doubtless it
would be more
work than aflat
floor, but much
more economical of material
and possibly less
likely to leak.

Read this section only if you want to innovate...

The walls and roof get their strength from their curved
shape. The floor, if it is flat, gets its strength by brute force
of being thick (see Appendix B, Tank Loads). A flat slab
floor is as inefficient structurally as the curved walls and
compound curved roof are efficient and elegant. Suppose
you were to make the floor conical, with a center drain, or
compound curved like the dome roof. Orthe bottom of a
glass bottle? In theory you could reduce the slab thickness
dramatically.
Why isn't this done? Is it simply because it is traditional
to pour slabs flat on the ground, because it is much more
work to dig a dome-shaped hole?
I don't know. Large, buried hemispherical tanks have been
made successfully, and many swimming pools have compound curve floors.
Conical floorA slightly cone-shaped slab, with concrete
thickness at the low end of the traditional range promises
better draining and improved strength with less material.
This hasn't been done that I know of, but it is very close to
things that have been. This shape should save considerably
on concrete, add strength, and not be too hard to build. You
could get this shape by pivoting a straight edge from the
center along the circumference. It has the advantage over a
floor sloped to one side that the walls are of uniform height.
(Note that changing the floor changes the drain, too; see
sidebar on p. 111.)

I suggestyou
Domed floor in jar tank.
add a second
layer of welded
wire mesh and possibly some wire fencing with 2" squares if
you do this, so it has some fine-scale reinforcing like the walls.
You'll need an accurate, smooth, well-compacted excavation
for a floor so thin.
This shape could be achieved by rotating a curved guide
around a tilted pole in the center.
Warning: This drawing is the best composof several designs
and has not been
proven in construction.
If you try an innovative
floor shape, please take
good photos and let us
know how it works out.
ite

FIGURE 4 1 : POSSIBLE FERROCEMENT DESIGN INNOVATIONS

Ferrocement

lid

Steel lid
Stainless or painted with welded
rebar tied into
armature
Side access

option

.--Overflow/vent
Brass coupling

Drain extension
Keeps
concrete
out of drain

Side access
can
be flush with the
dome (more
beautiful), fully
telescoped
(more
functional), or
anywhere in
between

Built-in Iadder

Inlet
Brass

Scale

Center access

7"=5' (1:60)

option

ninety

Permanent
ladder

Domed floor with

perimeter gutter __
sloped toward drain

Floor rebar
Center
SECTION THROUGH FINISHED TANK

ends

stake

SECTION THROUGH STEEL ARMATURE

For ciarity, rebar is only shown on back of

112

tank

For grid, the preferred method and the one in the

Strong Lower Walls and

Wall-to-Floor Joint

figures, place rebars in a grid, every foot or two, depending on the tank diameter. The ends should protrude
beyond the walls 6" to 2'; these get bent up 90 into the
plane of the wall. If you do a grid, some of these bent-up
wild ends will be where the verticals go, others won't.
If you can bend them a bit to get them spaced evenly,
that's an advantage, but don't worry about it too much
(Figure 39).
This floor-to-wall joint (Figure 42, below) is where
the advantage of the grid is. It uses roughly the same
amount of material as a radial pattern, but instead of the
"extra" rebar density being in the middle of the floor (as
is the case with the radial pattern), it is at the wall-tofloor joint, where shear stress is greatest and reinforcement is most needed. These extra rebar ends help keep
the walls from tearing outward from the floor under
pressure. Bend these wild grid ends up into the plane of
the wall.
If you've done the grid, now you'll add verticals
that have a short-footed L shape. The short foot of the
L should extend into the plane of the floor a foot or
two, and be tied to one or more floor rebars. How high
should the ends go up? All thaf s leftthe wild ends
will get bent down to make the roof.
This is where the extra work of the grid
floor is: dealing with these wild ends. It
may be helpful to put up
a hoop of rebar at the top
Overall
of the mesh to help hold
1.75-3"
them. Just make sure the
verticals end up on the
outside of the mesh but
inside the hoop.
The horizontal wall
rebars (hoops) should
be bigger and/or spaced
more closely where the
loads are greatest. At
bottom, both hoop stress
(from pressure pushing
out) and shear (from
the walls trying to push
away from the floor)
are greatest. Figure 43
shows suggested hoop
spacing for different wall
heights.

Forces in a water tank concentrate at the base of the

walls and the wall-to-floor joint. Here are three strategies
to resist them:
< Decrease the rebar spacing and increase rebar size
near the bottom of the wall.
Increase the thickness of the wall near the bottom.
(Using fatter rebar automatically increases the
thickness of the plaster inside the armature, and the
plasterers can be instructed to make the coverage
thicker near the bottom.)
Fatten the joint between the floor and wall inside
and out with a concave fillet of plaster that partially
fills the corner and tapers gradually on the wall and
floor on both sides.

FIGURE 4 2 : W A L L AND FLOOR JOINT DETAIL,

W I T H CONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE
5cale
thickness
(40 cm)
4. Wall rebar
12-24" apart (30-60

cm)

5. Rebar hoops
(1-15 cm)
6-24" apart, closer near
bottom, on outside of verticals

3/e"-'/2"

6. Outer welded wire mesh

6"x6" squares (15x15 cm),

10 gauge

The first hoop is

at the very bottom. It
holds in all the verticals
and bent-up floor ends.
The second hoop to be
placed is the one which
goes 1' up, at the bottom
edge of the access door
you are about to cut.
All the rebars which
Same

1:4

slope as

113

floor

vertical rebar.
If you did the radial floor, now is the time to add
the floor circles. Radial or grid, every crossing of floor
rebarevery crossing of rebar, periodshould be
securely hand-tied with a doubled wire tie.
And the mesh should be wired to the rebars all over,
so that when you step through a puddle of concrete onto
the mesh it doesn't pull loose and get pushed down into
the dirt, where it will rust and possibly crack your slab.

FIGURE 4 3 : H O O P SPACING FOR

DIFFERENT HEIGHT W A L L S
10

3/s"

rebar

Inlet, Outlet, and Overflow

Hardware

7 -

Before the second layer of mesh is put on is a good

time to add inlet, outlet, and overflow fittings. These can
be galvanized, PVC, or brass. If there is any chance you
will be the person who is going to have to replace the fittings when they rust out, I suggest you use brass. Why
build a tank that could last 100 years with fittings that
are guaranteed to fail in 30? Brass fittings are expensive,
but a bargain compared to the work of replacing rustedout galvanized ones.
You can weld (or solder, in the case of brass) tangs
sticking off of the couplings to keep them from spinning
in the wall when someone is trying to crank out a rusted
fitting with a pipe wrench (another reason to use brass).
The tangs get tied to the rebar. An alternative to welding
tangs to give fittings "tooth" is to use 45 bends or tees
with a plug in themthe tee is like one big tooth. (See
Figure 18, Drain Options, p. 61.)

6---

-c

55

-c

Wall Outer Welded Wire Mesh, First

Layer of Lath and Hardware Cloth
10 ft
(305 cm)

3 ft
(245 cm)

6 ft
(130 cm)
Hoop

4 ft
(120 cm)

spacing

are joined end to end should overlap at least 50 diameters (2' for V2,18" for 3/s" rebar) and have three tight,
double ties to hold them together. This can be fudged a
bit in non-critical places, but the hoops are totally critical; they are under quite a bit of tension stress.
By the way, if you are tempted to weld the rebars
together, forget it. Welding destroys the strength of rebar
(unless it is a rare weldable type).
Now add the rest of the hoops. Every hoop should
be tied with a doubled wire tie at every crossing of a

Cut 10' lengths of mesh, and hog ring them to the

inner mesh. These pieces of mesh should be offset 3"
up and 3" to the side from the inner mesh, so the two
together make 3" square holes instead of 6" square holes.
Why lengths just 10' long? Since the outer mesh is
on the outside of the wall rebar, it is making a circle that
is about an inch bigger in radius. Thus, the longer the
sections, the further out of sync it will get with the verti-

FIGURE 4 4 : H o w TO JOIN REBAR E N D TO E N D

FOR FULL STRENGTH IN TENSION
2 4 " (60

cm) for
V2" (15 mm) rebar

Close-up of wall armature; W rebar on T centers, two

layers of 6" x 6" mesh, offset to make 3" squares,
sandwiched between expanded metal lath on one side
and chicken wire on the other.

13" (46 cm) for

(10 mm) rebar

3/a"

114

cal rebars and the inner mesh. Ten feet

seems to be the longest that works for
keeping the wires somewhat in sync.
The two layers of mesh should be
hog ringed to each other all over the
place. Push with your hand. Do they
separate? Hog ring 'em. You can use
a short piece of rebar to pry the pieces
together for joining. In a 2' x 2' section
between rebars, it is not unreasonable to
have ten hog rings.
Those wings of excess floor mesh
which you've been tripping on this
whole time? Now is the time to bend
them up out of the way. You can cut off
the excess on corners, bending them
up and hog ringing them to the outside
mesh. As mentioned before, the more
steel and the thicker the plaster near the
bottom the better.
Concrete
tamper
Pumping and spreading concrete for the floor.
Add the bottom rows of expanded
metal lath ("lath" henceforth) inside and
securely wired scraps of rebar or dobies between the
hardware cloth on the outside of the
floor rebar and the pipe to push it down against its
wall. These will get buried a few inches in the concrete
supporting dobies, so the pressure of inrushing concrete
of the floor and help take the shear force between the
from the hose cannot move it in any direction.
walls and floor. These two items get stapled with the
pneumatic hog ring gun if you've got the fancy tool, or
with the same old manual hog rings if not.
Pour the Floor

Lift the Whole Thing Up and Get

Ready to Pour
Get out your digging bar and lever the armature up
onto dobies, starting at one side and working your way
toward the other. (You can see dobies in action in the
photo above.)
How big should the dobies be? Well, the rebar should
end up in the middle or slightly toward the bottom of
the slab for greatest strength and protection against
corrosion.
I'd go with 2" dobies for a 5" slab, 3" for a 6" or 8"
slab. If you are making a small tank (10' diameter or
less) and want to spend extra time to save material,
grade the earth very perfectly and use 1.5" dobies and a
4" slab. With small dobies, take care they don't sink into
the earth too much (or use 2" dobies and stomp them
into the earth Vi').
The dobies should be spaced such that you can walk
on the rebar without it bending so much that the ties
loosenevery couple to four feet, depending on the
stiffness of the rebar.
Check around that all is ready.
Plug the drain line at the sump so it doesn't fill with
concrete, and tape the openings of the outlets so the
threads don't foul with splatters of concrete.
Check that there is 3" of clearance all around the
drainpipe for a good seal with concrete. Pull out any
blown leaves or fallen dirt from around the drain. Place

115

The easy, expensive way to do the pour is to hire a

truck to mix and bring the concrete, a pumper to spread
it evenly over the floor, and a finisher or two to smooth
and level it. In this case you just ask for their strong
mix (six 94 lb sacks of cement per cubic yard) with pea
gravel, so it can make it through the pumper hose.
The hard way is to get a bunch of your friends to
mix the cement by hand (or mixer), carry it in through
that little door in wheelbarrows or buckets, and finish it
yourself. In this case you can use a 1:2:3 cement: sand:
gravel mix. %" gravel will add more crack-resistance.
If you've ever poured concrete, I don't need to tell
you that you want everything tidied up, all tools and
materials on hand, and all hands on deck for an early
start on pouring day It is imperative that the slab for a
water tank be completed in one continuous pour, with
no cold joints. If it cracks, it's not just an aesthetic issue;
it is a big leak at the very bottom of your tank.
With a truck, pumper, and two finishers, you should
be able to finish a slab up to 20' across before the concrete sets up too much, i.e., half a day. You might want
to add a few more helpers for a bigger-diameter slab.
I would not even attempt a hand-mixed, handpoured water tank slab any bigger than 6' across and 4"
thick without a generously sized, proven crew that you
are positivebased on past performancecan finish up
before dark. And I'd still have klieg lights on hand just
in case....
If the soil is dry, wet lightly before the concrete goes
on.

As the concrete is applied around the edges, someone with rubber boots needs to spooge it to the outside
several inches, as someone outside pushes it up three
to several inches on the outside of the wall armature.
The ideal is to end up with sort of a triangular fillet of
concrete on both sides of the wallsee Figure 42, p. 113.
This triangle will be encased with wall plaster on both
sides, providing a much less crack- and leak-prone joint
to the wall than a simple butt joint. Of course, it's best to
work from the farthest reaches of the inside back toward
the door.
At critical places, such as around (and especially
under) the drain line, you can ensure a void-free fill by
filling from the bottom up. If you shove the hose down
next to the (well-anchored) pipe, concrete will boil up on
both sides of it from the bottom up, pushing air ahead of
it. You can also push around it with a trowel.
Tamp the concrete into place with a concrete tamper
to ensure that it is void-free. (You can see one in the
photo on p. 115.)
The floor slope can be judged by eye and finished
fairly rough, but draining the tank may then leave
puddles. This will be less work to make, more work to
clean.
If, on the other hand, the idea of an easily made yet
wobbly floor offends thee, enlist the aid of a screed
setup designed by someone who has experience making
slabs to get the slope just right (see sidebar at right).
Once the floor has set up hard enough to kneel
on atop a small piece of plywood without sinking in,
it is time to smooth out the top surface. Impress on
your helpers that you do not want the mirror-smooth,
shuffleboard-court type finish it seems you would want
for easy cleaning. You want to leave enough "tooth"
that the Thoroughseal coat sticks. If you want a smooth
finish (which isn't as crucial as slope for cleaning ease,
since you'll be sweeping it anyway), you'll have to try
and make it in the sealer coats.
The drain sump is a good thing to have smooth, as
this is where all the gunk will congregate and resist
going down the drain. Make sure no part of the sump is
below the spill point of the drain.
After you've convinced yourself the pour has been
finished perfectly, clean the tools and go to sleep.
The next morning you can securely cap the drain,
flood the slab (up to the top of the little ridge of concrete
you pushed up around the perimeter), and forget about
it for a day or three while you pay attention to your
friends and family. Stop by once in a while and spray
down the outside edge of the slab, especially on the
south side.
You can slow the drying by putting wet blankets
over the concrete and plastic tarps over that. The slower
it dries, the less likely it is to crack. You should keep it
sopping wet for a couple of days and damp for a week
or more.

Finishing of Conical or Flat Floors

For a conical floor, pivot a string about a removable stake
or brick in the center as a guide for finishing. With the 4%
slope specified in the drawing of this optional design innovation (p. 112), this should be sufficient. After the string has
done its job, pull the stake out of the middle of the still mushy
slab, and stir up the concrete to fill the hole perfectly.
For flatter slopes, it should be possible to screed off the
floor from a center pivot to something fastened around the
circumference to get a nearly perfect cone that will drain
puddle-free.
To finish a floor that slopes to one point on the side, you can
set wooden guides on the rebar whose surfaces are at finished
floor level. Pour in between them and screed over the top of
them. Then, right after you've got the rest of the floor level,
pull them out and patch the holes, while the concrete has yet
to set up enough to do the final finish.

The Roof, Cool Shapes, Ladder

Now that the rebars are held solidly at the bottom in
cured concrete, you can bend down the wild ends of the
vertical rebars to form the roof.
How domed a roof should you make? The more
curved it is, the harder it is to make (because of the awkward fit of the mesh to the compound curve). A high,
steeply curved dome makes a stronger roof. However,
this advantage is outweighed by the large increase in
water pressure on the lower wall for a relative pittance
in increased storage capacity.
I advocate a fairly flat dome, rising about Vioth of
its diameter. The rings on a radial pattern roof contain
the strong outward forces generated as people walk on
it. That is the structural advantage of the radial pattern
for a roof. On a big roof, it is a nice touch to make the
top wall hoop a rebar-size fatter, or add another near it
for good measure. (Remember, all the hoops go outside
the verticals, to contain them.) Rebars joined end-to-end
should be overlapped at least 50 diameters, especially
the rings and hoops, which are under tension. (See
Figure 44, p. 115.)
What curve should you use? The choice is not critical, unless you are making a flat dome, in which case
the strongest curve overall is a section of circle, that is,
a constant curve. If the curve is variable, for instance,
more curved near the wall and less curved in the middle
(which is what you'll get if you just pull the rebar down
with your hand), the less curved section will be less able
to resist point loads from people walking on it.
If you want "wings" or a lip on the side of the tank
so that it can harvest water from its own roof, now is
the time to add them. Wings will require another hoop,
held in place by short verticals or the ends of roof grid
members that extend beyond the edge. There is little
load on modest-sized (under 2') wings, so they can be
lightly reinforced. You can make them thin, with a fat lip
of lath to strengthen the outside edge.

116

The vertical rebars, which are spaced evenly around

the circumference, can be tweaked over to line up with
roof grid lines, if you're doing a grid roof.
As it is under the least pressure, the roof isn't so critical. If the grid is a bitor a lotwank-a-doodle, it will
still be fine.
This is the time to attach the access hatch, if you've
had one made, or form one if you're making it yourself.
An access hatch on the edge has the advantage that it
can be located over an integrated ladder in the wall, and
you'll have an easier time getting in to plaster the inside
without trashing the fresh plaster on the roof.
If you telescope it up, as shown in Figure 41, p. 112,
it gives you a point to attach your inlet above the high
water level without snaking the pipe over your lovely
roof. (Or, if you really care about the aesthetics, pass the
inlet through low on the wall of the tank and telescope
up above the maximum water level inside the tank, a
measure which can help against freezing, too.)
An access hatch at the high point, in the middle (or
telescoped up), has the advantage that it can potentially
enable quite a bit more water to be stored above the
walls but below the roof.
If you want to make a rock-shaped tank, this is the
time to get creative.
In order to resist the water pressure, all parts of the
walls that have 4' or more of water pressing on them
need to be circular. That is, the bottom four feet of an 8'
tank, the bottom 6' of a 10' tank. The closer you get to
the top, the lower the water pressure and the more wild
you can get with the shape, without inviting structural
problems. Compound curves are inherently strong, and
can start lower on the tank wall, and changes in diameter (as in the urn-shaped tanks described previously)
are still circular, and thus don't compromise strength.
The stress on the roof is low. You can make it all bumpy
and asymmetrical, starting at different heights, and it
will still be plenty strong, as long as there are not big flat
sections (see photo, p. 38).
The pressure at the bottom of the tank is proportional
to the height of the highest water level, regardless of
how much volume of water is up there. This is a species
of leverage. If you make a hollow "rock" with a narrow spike sticking up 20', even if the spike is only a few
inches around, if the thing can fill with water it will add
20' of pressure to the tank. This might well blow apart
even a massive lower structure (see Figure 32, p. 91).
Conversely, farming out to a wider diameter above
(as in an urn) adds no more pressure below. This is why
clay urns are urn-shaped; the flare at top adds volume
without increasing the tension on the clay at the bottom.
For a regular domed, radial rebar roof, you just give
the wall rebars a concentrated bend at the top of the
wall, directly down almost 90, with a pipe and rebar
hickey, until they are in the plane of the dome edge.
From there you can give them a gentle, distributed bend
into the rest of the dome curve.
Once you've got the rebar all tied off, drape strips of

117

mesh over the whole top, with the usual 1 to 2-square

overlap. These need to be hog ringed where they are
sticking up above the rebar. If the dome is very curved,
you may need to clip the mesh in places (or twist individual wires into "Z" shapes to shorten them) to get the
mesh to conform to the curve.
The ceiling welded-wire mesh is installed in similar
fashion, except that it is made of shorter (10') strips,
tightly rolled and fed through the side door. These must
be well hog ringed, as they may find themselves supporting a big slug of heavy, wet plaster and a mason's
foot.
If you are going to make an integrated ladder, this is
the time to put it in. For specs, see Service Access, p. 56.
If you want, you can add a pole or permanent ladder
in the middle. If the ladder is steel, you can bolt it to
anchors in the floor slab, let it slide on the inside of the
hatch during construction, then cut it to length and bolt
or weld it to the hatch after the tank has cured (the tank
will shrink). If you use a steel pole, 2" is plenty. It should
be bolted to the floor, and covered with hardware cloth
and plastered to keep it from corroding.

Lath and Hardware Cloth

Lath goes on the inside surface of the whole thing
now. Use 2.5 lb/yd2 galvanized lath, with the cups
facing up, and edges overlapping 2". Lath goes on the
inside to catch the plaster you apply from the outside.
Plaster easily passes through the Vi" hardware cloth,
with which you are now going to skin the entire outside.
Vi" chicken wire is cheaper and can also be used, but
hardware cloth is stronger and smoother to trowel over.
(Chicken wire or lightest-weight expanded metal lath
can conform to compound curves and are the materials
of choice for any small, curvy details you've incorporated.)
Both lath and hardware cloth can be attached with
the pneumatic hog ring gun, if you're so lucky as to
have one. Both should be checked all over by pushing
with your hand, and hog ringed really tight. Twenty hog
rings in a 2' x 2' square are not excessive. The lath on
the inside of the ceiling should be especially tight. If it
pushes in as the cement is going on, it's not going to be
possible to pull it back once it's filled with cement.

Plaster Prep: Roof Supports, Seal

Door
The plaster doesn't contribute much to the strength
of the armature until it has dried for several hours. Since
the tank is plastered from the top down, the armature
itself must be made stiff and strong enough to support
much of the weight of a few workers and tons of wet
plaster, with the help of numerous supports under the
roof.
For tanks bigger than 10,000 gal, a mixture of 4 x 4s
and 2 x 6s will do as roof supports. For smaller tanks,
2 x 4s or 2 x 6s will work. Undressed round, green poles

also work fine.

If you drive a nail through the lath into the end
of the poles, that will keep them from falling over.
If the supports lean ever so slightly to one side
they will be easier to knock out afterward.
Seal off the temporary access door now, patching
over it with mesh, lath, and hardware cloth. Be sure
to overlap everything generously.
Clean off the slab (so you can scoop up and reuse
plaster that lands on it).
Clean any debris out of the tangle of rebar and
mesh at the floor-to-wall joint with compressed
air or water. You can also blowtorch any trapped
leaves. It is crucial that this area be clean for a leakfree joint.
Check that all is tied off perfectly, have bulk sand
and cement delivered, and arrange for plenty of
help. If you go the plaster mixer route, you'll want:
a big plaster mixer and a plaster pump
one semi-skilled person to make the mix
one person to direct the hose end
> two skilled plasterers to trowel out the plaster
as it goes on
one laborer to move hoses, clean tools, etc.

This bracing bent, then snapped, with the result that half the
roof caved in.
The braces were long 2 x 6s, which bent in the 2 " dimension,
then broke. 4x 4s probably would not have broken.
A cubic yard of cement for the roof was pumped into a big pile
in one spot on the roof, together with eight guys to help spread it.
Had the cement been distributed with the hose over the whole roof
as it came out, the failure probably wouldn't have occurred.

These figures include whatever workers come

with the equipment. As mentioned before, you'll want
to start early. With a good crew, you can mostly just
watch them go, and be finished before you get too hungry. For example, a five-person crew recently finished a
10,000 gal tank in five hours.
If you are manually mixing the plaster, you'll want:
two semi-skilled people to mix plaster
one or two laborers to deliver it to the finishers

: two to four skilled finishers to apply and finish the

plaster as it goes on
one laborer to clean tools, etc.
It is all but impossible to finish an entire big tank
manually in a day. For example, a good crew of four was
able to do a 45,000 gal tank in two long, hard days.
For mixer or by hand, the plaster is really rich: one
part cement to two or three parts sand. 1:3 is OK if the
plaster sticks well enough.

Plaster the Whole Tank

cure for half an hour. This coat keeps the heavy plaster
coat that is coming next from pouring through the
inside.
Now spray the outside to a thickness that fills the
armature completely to a voidless condition and leaves
a generous, protecting cover of Vi to %" over it. After
you've covered the entire outside and troweled it to its
final finish, take a break, and eat some food while the
plaster is setting up a bit, before heading inside.
If the access is in the middle, run a plank from a stepladder outside the tank to the well-supported lip of the
access hatch. Run the plaster hose along the plank. It's
going to be dark inside now, and hot, from the chemical reaction of the cement. You may need lights to do a
good job. You could run an extension through the inlet.
If plaster has rained onto the floor from the outside, you
can use it for the fillet between the floor and walls.
Give the inside a medium coat (3/8" to 5/8" cover over
the armatureup to 1" if sprayed) from top to bottom,
troweled to the final finish.
If you are manually mixing the plaster, the plaster is

Sequence your work to avoid disturbing fresh plaster. If you start from the bottom and work up, you'll be
leaning ladders against wet plaster. For this reason, the
preferred sequence is to start at the top and work down.
Do the area around the access hole first, and it will be
better cured when you've finished a phase and have to
go in or out of it.
If you are using a plaster pump, first spray inside,
from top to bottom, with a very, very light coat O/s")Plaster comes out the pump hose sort of like popping
popcorn. If the hose is held back a ways, it will result in
lighter coverage as the spray covers a wider area. Let it

40,000

118

qal (150 m3) ferrocement

tank, ready for

plaster.

applied from top to bottom, as with the

plaster pump. With hand mixing, it is better
to apply and finish the plaster on the inside
and outside in the same place at the same
time, with one finisher on the inside and
one on the outside.
After all the plastering is done, clean the
tools and get some sleep.

Keep It Wet
As soon as the plaster gets hard, start
wetting the tank down.
One tank maker in Hawaii wraps his
tanks in pallet wrap. Since the water then
can't escape the tank, it needs little attention. Plug the drain and flood the cured floor with water
to keep it humid, and you'll get a really nice, slow cure.
Alternatively, you can just keep wetting the plaster regularly, with blankets and tarps to store water and keep
it from evaporating rapidly. Some people have rigged
automatic sprinkler setups.
After three days, you can remove the supports from
the inside, clipping off the protruding nails which held
them in place. The holes where the supports were will
need patching.
Any remaining drips that landed on the floor can be
chipped off now.
Keep the tank saturated wet for three days and damp
for a week or two, especially on the sunny side.

Color and Seal It

A 100,000

gal (330

m3) tank ready for

plaste

gest you forget about getting a uniform color, and try

instead for an interesting patina.
Besides mixing the color into the cement, you can
also sprinkle it onto the surface and work it in to get a
more mottled appearance. Note that it must be stirred
in wellif there are isolated clumps of concentrated
color, they are likely to degrade rapidly. Bear in mind
that colors lighten dramatically over time. Red, for some
reason, seems more durable than other colors, so things
tend to turn out more pink than intended.
Once the color is done, you can backfill around the
tank and do the finish grading. The ground around the
tank should be mounded so that runoff will head away
from the tank.
Fin

lt

A new ferrocement tank should be kept mostly full

for a month or two for the final curing. It is normal for
a new tank to weep slight amounts of water in places
(often on the sunny side, where the cure was too fast).
Don't be alarmedusually this seals up.
As with a cement swimming pool, it is best for the
tank if you never let it dry out completely.
There you goyou've got a lifetime water tank!

A week later, after the cement has cured fully, you

can add the color coat to the outside. The color goes
into the Thoroughseal. (Thoroughseal is a cementatious
sealer. Thoroughseal "foundation coat" is cheaper and,
being grey instead of white, makes more attractive earth
tones.) At the same time the inside can be sealed with
two coats of Thoroughseal.
You may be tempted to use 1:1 sand and cement
instead of Thoroughseal. It is certainly cheaper, but not
as durable. On a related note, silica sand tends to pop
out of the wall. Whatever sealer you use inside, you
should confirm that it is safe for potable water.20 Adding
some color to the first interior seal coat (only) makes it
easier to confirm coverage of both coats inside the dark
tank. The Thoroughseal should be about the consistency
of pancake batter. It's applied with a big
mason's brush.
The color is a place where you can get
really creative. If you are particular about
the color, try it on big swatches, keeping
very careful track of the measurements and
procedure. (Davis concrete pigments make
the best plaster colors.)
All sorts of things affect how the color
turns out; the sand, the cement, the amount
of water, and the curing conditions... I sug-

A completed

119

40,000

ga\ (150 rrr) tank.

and Erik Nissen-Petersen. Intermediate Technology Publications,

1 9 9 9 . Tank sizing figure adapted

by

permission.

" W a t e r D i s t r i b u t i o n S y s t e m s H a n d b o o k L a r r y W. M a y s . A m e r i c a n

Updates & clickable links: oasisdesign.net/water/ storage

1

Principles of Ecological D e s i g n Art Ludwig. Oasis Design.

Principles

for redesigning

use. See description

2

our way of life to live better with less

on inside back cover and free online

21Paul

at

materials

C r e a t e a n O a s i s w i t h G r e y w a t e r A r t L u d w i g . O a s i s D e s i g n . See

ity ferrocement

inside back cover.

since 1982. Tanks from

There is a free online

summary

of common

greywater

at w w w . o a s i s d e s i g n . n e t / g r e y w a t e r /

practices

of NSF

K e m n i t z e r , H o l l i s t e r R a n c h 5 1 , G a v i o t a , C A 93117. 8 0 5 4 5 1 -

5 1 5 3 . p a b l o t e e b s @ g m a i l . c o m . Ferrocement

and preferred

database

www.nsf.org / Certified /

and components:

PwsComponents.

resource

summary

misinfo.

pioneer,

water tanks, homes and structures

boulder-shaped,

3,000-100,000

in natural

and builder

gal (11-380

vi'), cylindrical

or

^ P a c i f i c G u n i t e , B o x 421, M o u n t a i n View, H I 9 6 7 7 1 . 8 0 8 - 9 6 8 - 6 0 5 9 ,
F a x 8 0 8 - 9 6 8 - 8 6 6 8 , w w w . p a c i f i c g u n i t e . c o m . Cylindrical
50,000+

description

on inside back cover

and

L u d w i g . O a s i s D e s i g n . A set of downloadable
learn water

testing

techniques

and interpret

files which will help

results.

health.nsw.gov.au/pubIic-health/chorep97/env

cover,

^ W a t e r B l a d d e r s in C u l v e r t s E a r t h w r i g h t s D e s i g n s . 5 0 5 - 9 8 6 - 1 7 1 9 ,

See inside back

Teak D e c k C a u l k

e z e n t r i x @ a o l . c o m . 1 suggest

A m e r i c a n Journal of Public Health Robert D. Morris. 1992.

ence if you want one of these. They use aluminized

W a t e r S t o r a g e E x t r a s O a s i s Dfesign. Includes

mil PVC inside geotextile,

permeation,

leaching,

bacterial

and water system

Water

Tank

regrowth,

component

Calculator,

disinfection
spreadsheet.

capacity

See

M a r c h 1 9 9 9 p e t i t i o n to t h e F D A Includes

of their four-year

bacterial

and chemical

study of the bottled

contamination

find major gaps in bottled

water is not necessarily

problems.

water regulation

and conclude

and

that

27Maruata

report

bottled

See w w w . n r d c . o r g / w a t e r /

safer than tapwater.

drinking / bw / b winx.asp.

systems

including

water supply

underground,

c o m . Offer a $137 water

and exposed

thing unless

high on their standard

limits

tests you are unlikely

are

to find any-

the water is really bad, but the price can't be beat. They

us they offer tests with lower limits now, as

access for cleaning.

designs for an indigenous

30

installed,

First ones

inbladder

community

in

Mexico,

See w w w . o a s i s d e s i g n . n e t /

and sanitation.

of Iron and M a n g a n e s e w w w . f c s . u g a . e d u / p u b s / P D F /

H A C E - 8 5 8 - l l . p d f . Iron and manganese

4 5 8 - 3 3 3 0 , Fax 4 4 0 - 4 4 9 - 8 5 8 5 , n t l s a l e s @ n t l l a b s . c o m . w w w . n t l l a b s .
disappointingly

Cost is about $l/gal

design / examples / maruata / book.htm.

"National Testing Laboratories, Ltd. P h o n e 440-449-2525 or 800As detection

with

e n el C r u c e d e C a m i n o s A r t L u d w i g . O a s i s D e s i g n .

Ecological

28Oxidation

test for 75 parameters.

gal. There is limited

experi-

steel culverts

aboveground pools www.zodiacpools.com.

26Zodiac

including

The petition

or PP bladders.

of Earthwright's

examples.

report on the

water industry,

10-50k

you avail yourself

in 2002. See w w w . w a t e r s t r u c t u r e s . c o m / o r other storage

stalled

inside back cover and w w w . o a s i s d e s i g n . n e t / w a t e r / storage.

7NRDC's

watalum.htm.

24Maritime

notes on materials

1,000-

you

also w w w . o a s i s d e s i g n . n e t / w a t e r / q u a l i t y / c o l i f o r m . h t m .

byproducts,

tanks

gal.

^ R e p o r t o f the N e w S o u t h W a l e s C h i e f H e a l t h Officer, 1 9 9 7 w w w .

Water Quality Testing Procedures and Information Packet Art

results

qual-

California

colors.

O a s i s D e s i g n . Forthcomingsee

research

of

in Southern

Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff M a n a g e m e n t Art Ludwig.

www.oasisdesign.net/ water/rainharvesting.

S a n i t a t i o n F o u n d a t i o n Searchable

61 certified

www.oasisdesign.net/ design/principles.htm.

mistakes
3

W a t e r W o r k s A s s o c i a t i o n , 1999.
20National

to oxygen,

manganese

tell

in the absence

the process

will precipitate

Iron sediment

well.

of oxygen.

is reddish

dissolve

more readily

/Is water is pumped

will reverse

and the dissolved

out of the water forming

brown

or orange;

deep

to the

colored

manganese

surface

iron

and

sediment.

sediment

is black

or dark grey. See also w w w . h e a l t h g o o d s . c o m / E d u c a t i o n / H e a l t h y

' B u i l d e r ' s Greywater Guide Art Ludwig. Oasis Design, www.oas i s d e s i g n . n e t / g r e y w a t e r . F i g u r e 7, p. 43: H o w T r e a t m e n t C a p a c i t y

H o m e Information/Water Quality/iron

manganese.htm.

Float Valve C L A - V A L A u t o m a t i c Control Valves.

29Non-modulating

a n d C o n t a m i n a t i o n P l u m e s C h a n g e w i t h L o c a t i o n of W a s t e w a t e r

11626 S t e r l i n g Ave., Ste. F, R i v e r s i d e , C A 9 2 5 0 3 . 8 0 0 - 9 4 2 - 6 3 2 6 , F a x :

Application.

9 5 1 - 6 8 7 - 9 1 5 4 . w w w . c l a - v a l . c o m . Highly

10PondsPlanning,

valve costs $463, supplies

Design, Construction The U S D A Natural

Resources

Conservation

Service

office to get

30Watermaster

ozonators,

" B u i l d i n g a P o n d L a n d O w n e r R e s o u r c e C e n t r e . P.O. B o x 599,

3 5 7 1 or 1 - 8 0 0 - 2 6 7 - 3 5 0 4 , F a x 6 1 3 - 6 9 2 - 0 8 3 1 , i n f o @ l r c o n l i n e . c o m ,

1 0 1 6 Cliff D r i v e #321, S a n t a B a r b a r a , C A 9 3 1 0 9 . 805-

water treatment

31Information

www.lrconline.com.
Construction: S o m e Practical Considerations Virginia

3 2 Tank

ward large municipal

w e a t h e r s t a t i o n data. Try searching

example

of what you're

station"

the web for

looking for:

an

wwwcimis.water.ca.gov

chances

4 2 0 - 0 1 9 , 1999.
w w w . t o t a l h a b i t a t . c o m / P & P . h t m l . Designers

and builders

of

from

diameters

and comments

on stone tank shape are

this work. For stone tanks they suggest

less than 2.5 m, hexagonal

square

tanks for small capacities.

water

lines.

octagonal

procedures

for welding

to-

www.

transfers,

property

thirds compared

to where sprinklers

are not present.

of a fire killing

more than two people

in a completely

educational,

institutional

"reduce

loss by one-half

to two-

NFPA has no
sprinklered

or residential

record
public

building..."

Drinking Water Clearinghouse 800-624-8301, www.nesc.

help for small communities

to run their

water

systems.
^Branched Drain Greywater Systems Art Ludwig. Oasis Design.
Design,

for

construction

simple

design

and use of "branched

to achieve

automated,

pump, filter, valves or surge

HDPE

reliable

drain"

greywater

subsurface

tank, using all off-the-shelf

systems:

irrigation

without

components.

See

www.oasisdesign.net / greywater / brancheddrain.

" E f f e c t s of Water A g e on Distribution System Water Quality

A m e r i c a n W a t e r W o r k s A s s o c i a t i o n . Figure
lsRainwater

tanks but much of the information

w v u . e d u / n d w c . Skilled

shape for tanks of at least 2 m, and

Includes

infor-

It is geared

Agency www.epa.gov

of
para-

tanks

past issues of this newsletter.

Fire P r o t e c t i o n A s s o c i a t i o n States sprinklers

35National

H a n d b o o k o f G r a v i t y F l o w W a t e r S y s t e m s T h o m a s D. J o r d a n ,

phrased

for

instal-

^Surface Water Treatment Rule U S Environmental Protection

natural

pools/ponds.

Jr. I n t e r m e d i a t e T e c h n o l o g y D e v e l o p m e n t G r o u p . 1 9 8 0 . Portions

in several

of dying in a fire and the average

assembly,

S w i m m i n g P o o l s / P o n d s - T h e Total G u i d e . Total H a b i t a t .

S i z i n g W a t e r T a n k s section

on freezing

33National

E x t e n s i o n Specialist. F i s h e r i e s V i r g i n i a Tech. P u b l i c a t i o n N u m b e r

swimming

and

tankindustrv.com / tanktalk.html.

"evapotrans-

and the name of your area. Here's

" S o l u t i o n s to C o m m o n Fish P o n d P r o b l e m s L. A . H e l f r i c h ,

15Natural

selection,

Talk N e w s l e t t e r T a n k I n d u s t r y C o n s u l t a n t s . Excellent

4 2 0 - 0 1 1 . w w w . e x t . v t . e d u / p u b s / fisheries / 4 2 0 - 0 1 1 / 4 2 0 - 0 1 1 .html.
and "weather

equipment

o n s a n d filters See w w w . o a s i s d e s i g n . n e t / w a t e r / t r e a t -

mation

piration"

consulting,

ment / slowsandfilter.htm.

C o o p e r a t i v e E x t e n s i o n , F i s h e r i e s a n d Wildlife, 1 9 9 7 P U B L I C A T I O N

16 A

kit

lation.

3 8 8 9 R i d e a u Valley Dr., M a n o t i c k , O n t a r i o K 4 M 1 A 5 . 6 1 3 - 6 9 2 -

l 3 Local

Vi"

Rebuild

9 6 6 - 9 9 8 1 , Fax 8 0 5 - 7 0 5 - 5 8 1 3 , u s a w a t e r m a s t e r @ j u n o . c o m . Source

a copy.

1 2 Pond

but expensive.

is $70.

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agriculture H a n d b o o k

5 9 0 . Call your local Natural

reliable,

19 gpm; enough for most systems.

adapted

by

37Republic

Fastener Products Corp. 1827 Waterview Drive, Great

Falls, S C 2 9 0 5 5 . 8 0 0 - 3 8 6 - 1 9 4 9 , w w w . r e p f a s t . c o m . Provides

permission.

gauge

Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply John Gould

steel hog rings X2RP425

ers from

120

same

supplier.

used for all manual

hog ringing

%" 14
with

pli-

ac (acre) 90
access (tank) 9,53,55,56,57,108
form for 102
hatch 117
lockable 5 2
pressure-tight 56
sealing 52
Acrylonitrile Butiadene Styrene (ABS)
94
additives 39
adobe 79
aerator. See inlet aerator
aesthetics 31
afy (acre-feet per 5'ear) 90
agricultural chemicals 23
air, displaced 8
air gap 55
airlock 9
air pressure level gauge 70
air vent. See vent, air
alarm 35,71
algae 9,22,27,65,76
aluminum 43
animal droppings 9
anti-seep collars 25
apartment 8 8 - 8 9
appropriate technology 3
aquaculture 21,23
aquatic plants 21,27
aquifers 1 6 - 2 0 , 7 6 , 8 8
artesian 18
confined 18
contamination 17
fissured 18
gravity 18
high 22
increasing water in 1 9 - 2 0
injection wells 19
overdrafting 19,83
perched 18,83
protecting quality 20
recharge 7,19,21
saltwater intrusion 18,19,20
subartesian 18
types 18
architectural guidelines 52
area, formulas for 90
Arizona desert 88
armature (for ferrocement)
95,107,224,117
atm (atmosphere) 90
attrition (of pathogens) 2,10,11
Australia 78

bacteria 5,9. See also pathogens

a health problem? 11
anaerobic 10
fecal 7
indicator 13
bacteria, beneficial 72
bacterial regrowth 11,12,76
baked enamel. See porcelain-bonded
carbon steel
ball valve. See valve, ball
bathing 7
bathtubs 7
beavers 27
bedrock, fissured
and ponds 2 3
bending force 91,92,93
bentonite clay 24,61,109
biological hazards. See pathogens
birds 22
bisphenol-A 94
boilers 11
bore. See wells
brass 4 1 , 4 2

brass fittings 56,114

break pressure tanks 54
brick (tank material) 44
bucket 56
Builder's Greywater Guide 124
building department 52
bulkhead fitting 4 5 , 8 7
buried storage 31,38,44,47,49,65,74
collapse of 32
burning brush 80

dead storage 55
decorative ponds 75
deflocculation 10
demand. See water
design
contexts 6
ecological 3
life 7
principles 3 - 8
trade-offs 4
disaster 1
sizing storage for 35
disinfection 11
byproducts 10,12
decay 12
dissolved oxygen. See oxygen
distribution system 10
diversions 23,25,83,85
dobies 108,223
size 115
drain 5 8 - 6 2
capped 59,60
center 111
c o m b i n e d with outlet 45,58,60
construction details 61,109
extension 71
for buried tanks 31
for pond 24,25
in wood tank 45
location 5 9 - 6 5
low tech 61
options 61
retrofit
plastic tank 6 0 - 6 5
steel tank 58,59
size 62
sump 6 0 - 6 5 , 1 0 4
drainage 48
dredging 27
drinldng water 7,88
emergency 76
separate system 6
drought 19
drowning hazard 9,27,53
drums 6,50,76,89

calcium, precipitation 11
capillary connection 16
cedar 45
cement 6
c e m e n t mixer 108
c h e a p and easy 8
check valve. See valves, check
chicken wire 117
chlorination 9,10,12,27,67,76
cigar shape 32
circumference of a circle 90
clarified septic effluent 10
clay (jar material) 22,44
clear tube (as level indicator) 70
climate 20
climate change 78
cob (building material) 79
cold joints (in concrete) 107
coliforms. See bacteria
coliscan plate 11
color coat 206
combined drain/outlet. See drain,
combined with outlet
components
overview 28
spreadsheet 28
c o m p o u n d curves. See curves, c o m pound
compression force 92,93
concrete 11,22,32,44
fly ash in 39
forms 9 6 - 1 0 7
conduction 54
confining layers 18
conical floor. See floor, conical
conjunctive use 19
conservation
in emergency 35
contact time 12
contamination. See toxins
context 3,14,95
convection 54
conversions 90
copper 42^13
pipe 54
corks 62
corrosion. See rust
cost 5 , 8 , 1 6 , 2 2 , 2 4 , 2 7 , 5 0 - 5 1
ponds 21
really cheap storage 50
Costa Rica 88
cost-benefit 4
C P V C 54
crayfish 2 7
Create an Oasis with Greywater 124
creek direct. See source direct
creeks 14,18
critter-proofing 8,50,63,64,65
Cross-linked polyethylene. See PEX
(cross-linked polyethylene)
crud 8
Cuba 54,58
curing 96
too fast 100
curves 71
compound 93,116,117
simple 93
cut 48

dams 20

earthquake 2,35,53,77,89
earthquake loads 91
ecological design. See design, ecological
economics. See cost
Eden 88
electric heater 74
electricity 1
dependence 89
electrolytic corrosion 42,43
electronic level indicator 70
e m b a n k m e n t 26
emergency
reserve 35,52,56,73
storage 7 5 - 8 9
energy
consumption 6
thermal 2
engineering 53,77
engineer's stamp 52
E P D M 22,23,24,46,94
epoxy 94
epoxy-coated rebar 57
epoxy-coated steel 47,94
erosion 24
Ethylene Propylene Diene M o n o m e r .
See E P D M
Evans, lanto 13
evaporation 2 , 1 6 , 2 0 , 2 3 - 2 4 , 2 7
s w i m m i n g pool 2 7
evapotranspiration, vs. precipitation 20
excavation 101
expanded metal lath 92,223,114,117

121

failure 8
fecal matter 11,12. See also bacteria,
pathogens
fences 78
ferrocement 79
ferrocement tanks 4 1 , 5 7
construction 9 5 - 1 2 0
experimental improvements 96
fire resistance 77
forms for 96
heavy-duty 1 0 7 - 1 2 0
light-duty 1 0 1 - 1 0 3
medium-duty 104
skill required 9 5 - 1 0 7
spherical 96
tank shape 38
ultra-light-duty 1 0 0 - 1 0 1
fiberglass (glass fiber-reinforced
polyester) 3 2 , 4 6 ^ 7
footings for 49
field capacity 15,16
fill 48,60
fillet 92
filtration 10,66,225
fire 1,2,225
bunker 78
septic tank as 79
water tank as 79
department 52
fighting 5 2 , 7 8 - 8 1
hoses 1,80
hydrant 2,35,52,55,73,80,81,83
insurance 80
reserve 3 4 , 5 6
resistant storage 77
retardant gel 81
safety 21
sprinklers 2 , 8 0 - 8 1 , 8 1
suppression 79
trucks 81
fire hydrant 78
fire-resistant storage 77
fire sprinklers
exterior 81
fish 21,22,24
in ponds 26
nuisance 2 7
floating solids 8,62
float (level indicator) 69
float switch 71
float valve. See valve, float
flooding 2,24,25,53
hazard 52
plains 21
reduction 16
floor 48^19,55
concrete 38
conical 92,112
construction 205,109
dished 92,112
finishing 116
flexible 91
options 61
pouring 1 1 5 - 1 1 6
pumping 225
shape innovations 112
slab 223,115
sloped 60
stiff 91
strain 49
Thai jar 9 7 - 1 0 7
flow. See water, flow
foam injection 36,80,81
footings 48^19,102
Thai jar 96
forms. See concrete, forms
fossil fuels 3
foundation. See footings
fountain
hydroelectric 29
freeze protection 1,2,73
by burial 3 1

frost heave 32,91

ft3/sec (cubic feet per second) 90
fungicides 39

gal (gallon) 90
gallons per inch 70
galvanized steel 8 , 4 1 - 4 2 , 5 6
corrosion. See rust
welded tank 64
with plastic membrane 4 7 ^ 8
galvanizing paint 56
Gambusia. See mosquito fish
garden hose 80
gasoline 78
gasses, disolved 11
gate valve. See valve, gate
gauge. See pressure gauge
geology 18
glass 39
glass reinforced polyester (GRP).
See fiberglass (glass fiber-reinforced polyester)
goals 1,4,5
goat bladders 4 8 - 5 0
gpm (gallons per minute) 90
grading 105
gravel (as footing) 48
gravity
flow 29,55,66
loads 91
gravity flow water systems 120
Greenpeace 45
greywater
storage 6
greywater systems
for runoff harvesting 16
grid 111
groundwater. See aquifers
gutters 42,65,81

ha (hectare) 90
hardness 12
hardware cloth 92,114,117
hazards 5 2 - 5 3
biological. See pathogens
liability. See liability
H D P E 46,76
cast into masonry 61
taste 46
toxicity/leaching 46
health department 52
heating
effects 1 0 - 1 1
heat loss 54
high density polyethylene. See H D P E
hilltops 31
hog-ring pliers 107
pneumatic 107,117
homeowners' association 52
hoops 113
spacing 114
stress 92-96,113
hot springs 5 4
drain 62
hot tubs 75,81
hot water storage 54,75
Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage
11,16,25,83-84
hurricanes 2 , 7 7 - 7 9
hydrant. See fire, hydrant
hydroelectric 1 4 , 1 6 , 8 3 - 8 4
battery 2
pressure for 29
hydrogen sulfide 67

ice load 91
ice-skating 21
indoor supply plumbing
copper 42
infiltration 15
basins 7,19,21

coefficient 19
galley 87
inlet 1 2 , 5 5 , 5 5 - 5 6 , 5 8
aerator 10,67
combined with outlet 6 6 - 6 7 , 6 7
diffuser 6 7 - 6 8
float 73
float valve. See valve, float
hidden 104
in roof 5 6
welded 56
insulation 74
insurance 52
Intermediate Technology Developm e n t Group 96,101
iron 12,67
irrigation 6,7,16
covering peaks 34
drip 7
storage in soil for 1 5 - 1 6

Kemnitzer, Paul 107,120

kitchen sinks 30
kPa (kilopascal) 90

ladder 9,53,56,57
built-in 117
Lake Cachuma 24
landslides 31,53
lath. See expanded metal lath
laundry 7,75
leaching. See toxins, leaching
lead 39
based paint 9
glaze 44
leaks 9,23,27,56,61,68
in wood tanks 45
leather 4 8 - 5 0
legal requirements 1,2,5,52,67
firefighting 36
levees 22,24,25
construction 25
cross-section 26
level indicators 6 9 - 7 1
Lexan. See polycarbonate/Lexan (PC
#7-other)
liability 5,21,53
lid 9
removable 27
lifestyle accommodation 4
lightning 77
lights 115
lime 12
livestock 7,21,24,26
L (liter) 90
loads. See structural loads
locks 78
longterm storage 76
Los Angeles 89
Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE
#4) 94
low pressure. See pressure, low
Ipm (liters per minute) 90

M
m (meter) 90
m 3 (cubic meter) 90
m3/day (cubic meters per day) 90
manganese 67
manhole. See access (tank)
marine plywood 45
market culture 3,5
Maruata 1 6 - 1 8
masonry 60
masonry in and over plastic 47
materials 2 8 , 3 9 - 4 8
efficiency 36,38
to avoid 39
toxicity 12
membrane 91
meter 66
Mexico 83,93

microclimate 21,74
mold. See concrete, forms
mold-release agents 39
mosquitoes 9,22,27,52,63,65
fish 27,125
screened 55
trap 52
multiple tanks 72
plumbing options 73
muskrats 25,27

Nalgene bottles 94
National Drinking Water Clearinghouse 120
National Fire Protection Association
120
National Testing Laboratories 120
natural pools 27,120
natural resources
waste 33
N e w York City 8 8 - 8 9
Nil 102
nitrates 20,23
non-modulating float valve.
See valve, float, n o n - m o d u lating
N S F 61 certified 39,46,47
c e m e n t 41
sealers 41
N T U 90
nutrients
and algae 27
in water 65

oak 45
odor 12
organic matter 9
outlet 9,12,35,56
curves 71
float 68
for pond 24
screen 68
overflow 9,25,52,55,62-65,71,73
critical 64
for pond 24
line 63
size 62
uncontrolled 9
oxygen 67
for fish 26
ozonation 2,10,71,76

paint
reflective 65
with zinc 41
Painted Cave Fire 77
pallet wrap 108
pasteurization 10,11
pathogens 10,12,13,53,72. See
also bacteria
pebble tech 27
perched aquifer. See aquifers, perched
perfectionism 109
perfection standard 4,5
inflation 4
permeation 11,53,76,77
permit. See legal requirements
pesticides 13
in aquifers 18
PETE. See Polyethylene Terephthalate
(PETE or PET #1)
PEX (Cross-linked polyethylene) 94
pH 12,26
pipe 2 9
abandoned 12
nipples 8
size 1
supply
size 32
wrap 109
planes 93

122

plants. See irrigation

plaster 113
color 119
curing 119
in tension 92
mixer 108,118
plasticizers 39
plastics 65
American Plastic Council 45
health & ecological issues 94
membranes, coatings, and bladders 48
tank material 4 5 - 4 6
tanks
drain retrofit 6 0 - 6 5
footings for 49
tank shape 38
taste 46,76
plumbing 11
code 52
for easy changes 8
point load 91. See also structural
loads, point
polyamide epoxy. See epoxy
polycarbonate/Lexan (PC #7-other)
76,94
polyethylene 54
septic tanks 32
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE or
PET #1) 46,76,94
Polypropylene (PP #5) 94
ponds 2 0 - 2 7 , 8 1
clay core 25
combination 22
cost 25
depth 24
duck 6
e m b a n k m e n t 22
excavated 22
failure 22,25
liners 2 4 - 2 5
living 21,22
locating 21
runoff harvesting 21,22
shape 24
size 24
storage 21,22,23
tu mover 24
types 21
wall slope 24
weeds 24
Popocatepetl 93
population 7
porcelain-bonded carbon steel 42
pot growers 51
power outage 3 5
pressure 6,8,29,36,91
for different applications 3 0
gauge 66
as remote level indicator 70
inward, from burial 32
loss in tank 33
low 29
maximum 29
spike 69
switch 71
tanks 29,30,38,54
very low 8 7 - 8 8
Principles of Ecological Design 124
progress, true 3
psi (pounds per square inch) 90
pump 30,56,88,89
buried tanks 31
for fire 80
for pressure tank 54
pump control 71
pumping 1,2,3,6,15,19,20
downhill (pet peeve) 32
energy use 30
purification. See treatment
PVC 8,45,46,51
in sunlight 9,39
pipe 14

raccoons 76
radial with hoops 111,116
radio links 29,71
rainwater 7,27,76
cistern under an office 64
fate of 15
gutters. See gutters
harvesting 12,72,83,88,96
Huehuecoyotl 83
tank for 101
infiltration 16
Rainwater Catchment Systems for
Domestic Supply 120
Rainwater Harvesting and
Runoff M a n a g e m e n t
7,15,19,21,50,84,124. See
also runoff
rats 9,65,76
rebar 92,113
hickey 107
joining 114
overlap 114
spacing and size 92
welding 114
recycling 8
red cedar 39
redwood 27,45,77,92
regulations i
reliability 8
repair 8
reserve. See emergency, reserve
resource use 3
riprap 25
river 81
rock and mortar. See stone tanks
rocks 11
tank shape 38
roofs 5 0 , 1 1 6 - 1 1 7
cave-in 118
center pole 117
conical 38,50,57,92
domed 38,50,91,92,93,116
construction 1 0 2 - 1 0 7
flat 50
grid 117
hexagonal 50
water harvesting 50
roots 4 9 , 7 7 - 7 9
as pumps 15
rope 53
runoff 7,15,20,21,23,25,56,83
rust 41,48,58,63

sacred spots 31
safety factor 92
salt
flushing 7
sand
filter 72,86,120
silica 119
San Juan Island 72
Schwarzenegger, Arnold 78
screed 116
security 31
and tank size 32,33
standard 4
sediment 9
septic conditions 12
septic tank 10,44
outlets 63
plastic 32
set-aside. See reserve;See also emergency, reserve
settleable solids. See solids, settleable
settling 2,8,10,11,73
inlet diffuser for 67
sewage 10
in aquifers 18
shade 65
shape, tank 3 6 - 3 8
egg 36,37,38,41

for burial 32
graphical overview 36
rectangular 9,36
rock-like 117
sphere 32,38
square 36
structural effect 93
shear force 92,113
shower 1
shutoff valve. See valve, shutoff
silver solder 54
sinkholes 19
siphon 55
site
prep 1 0 8 - 1 0 9
walk-in only 109
siting 2 8 - 3 2
size, tank
structural effect 9 3 - 9 6
sizing 3 2 - 3 6 , 4 4
for firefighting 36
for intermittent production 35
for interruptions in supply 35
for limited supply 34
skimmer 27
skinny-dipping 78
slab. See floors, slab
slope
stability 29,31
steep 53
sludge 58
small containers 76
smell 12
snow load 93
soil
loads 91
report 52
storage in 1 5 - 1 6 , 2 5
vs. aquifers 15
solar
greenhouse 2
heaters 75
solids
settleable 86
source direct 1 4 - 1 5 , 8 5 , 8 5 - 8 7
specific heat 2
spill point 55
spillways 25,64
springs 1,2,9,12,14,16,18,22,23,34,
66,85
stainless steel 42,54
standpipes 80
stay and defend (fire control) 78,81
steel
reinforcing 95
tanks 48
tank shape 38
Stinson Beach 15
stone tanks 43
storage ponds. See ponds, storage
stress
uniform 93
structural loads 5 3 , 9 1 - 9 3
buried 31
collapse 53
efficiency 36
point 116
stucco. See plaster
suburban house 89
sulphur 12
sun, on tanks 9
sunscreen 47,65
by burial 31
supply 66. See water/supply
surface area, formulas for 90
Surface Water Treatment Rule 120
suspended solids. See turbidity;See
also floating solids;See also settlable solids
swamp coolers 2
swimming 22,225
holes 11
pools 27,75,81,89

above ground 27,51

variable level 27
swing joint 80
system modes 28

tanks
cleaning 58,59,60
coatings
toxins in 39
cost. See cost
forces on. See structural loads
galvanized. See galvanized steel
multiple. See multiple tanks
on roof 29
open 27
painting. See paint
shape. See shape, tank
siting. See siting
sizing. See sizing
Tank Talk Newsletter 120
tannins 22
tap station 98
taste 12
Tea Fire 77,78
temperature 12,65
of buried storage 31
tension force 92,93
Thai jar 9 6 - 9 8
thermal mass. See specific heat
thermal storage 1,2
thermos 54
Thoroughseal 206,116,119
toilet 7
flushing 7
tank 75
tools 1 0 7 - 1 0 8
torque block 59
tote bins 51
tower. See water, towers
toxins 7,9,53,78
leaching 11,12,53,76
PVC 39
threat to aquifers 20
transporting water 5 4 - 5 8
trash cans 39
treatment 2,73,125
biological 27
residual 10
trees 77
triangles 93
trihalomethanes 9,10
tunnel vision 3,5
turbidity 7,12,67. See also floating
solids,-See also solids, settlable
and fish 26
turbulence 72

ultraviolet light 10
underground river 1 7 - 1 8
union 56
units 90

vacuum breaker 25
valve
float
non-modulating 120
valves
ball 62
check 55,56,63
float 55,66,71
gate 69
shutoff 55,56,61
vandalism 78
variable height outlet 68
vector control 52
vent 55,65
vermin 27
vernal pools 22
volume, formulas for 90

123

walls 9 1 , 1 0 2 - 1 0 7
floor joint to 223
structural loads 92
thickness 92
washing machine 7
water
age 12
bottled, survey 12
color 12
corrosive 12
demand
forecast 7
flow 1
hazards. See hazards
level 105,107
pressure. See pressure
protecting 77
quality 1,2,4,12,16,83
changes 9 - 1 3
guidelines for different uses 7
improving 10
of ponds 20,23
separate handling 6 - 7
testing 1 2 - 1 6
quantity 5
running 6
security 1 , 1 - 2
shortage 1,19
softness 7,12
stagnant 12
still 6
stored energy 2
supply chain 1
taste 7
temperature 12
towers 29,38,53,54,66,77
safety 30
use
covering peaks 3 3 - 3 4
hourly 34
peaks 1
per capita 6
water age 120
waterbed bladder 39,48
water h a m m e r air cushions 68,69
Watermaster 120
Water Quality Testing Procedures and
Information Packet 124
watershed 16,18,20,25
area for ponds 23
Water Storage Extras 124
weather station data 120
welded steel 60
wire mesh 109
wells 9,17,18,55,66,82. See also aquifers
artesian 16,18
contamination 55
horizontal 16,87
low yield 34
Westmont College
fire bunker 78
wildfire. See fire
wildlife
and ponds 22,26
habitat 21
Willard 107
wind. See hurricanes
wind loads 91
wings (for rain harvesting) 116
wood (tank material) 45

yucca stalk 61
zinc 42
zoning 52

Water Storage ExtrasIncludes Water Tank Calculator,

Research Notes on materials leaching, bacterial regrowth,
disinfection byproducts, permeation, and water system component spreadsheets.
See www.oasisdesign.net/ water /storage for specs and price.
Principles of Ecological DesignNatural living is the harmonious integration of human culture, technology, and
economics with nature. This booklet explains principles for
redesigning our way of life to live better with less resource
use. 18 pages, 30 figures and photos, all color download $4.95, or
hard copy, $6.95.
The New Create an Oasis with GreywaterWhy to use/not
use greywater, health guidelines, greywater sources, irrigation requirements, 20 system examples and selection chart,
biocompatible cleaners, greywater plumbing principles, components, maintenance, troubleshooting, freezing, rain, preserving soil quality, storing rainwater, suppliers, further reading.
146 pages, 53 figures, 130 photos, $20.95.
Builder's Greywater Guide (a supplement to Create an Oasis)
Help for building professionals or homeowners to work within or around building codes to successfully include greywater
systems in new construction or remodeling. 46 pages, 9 figures,
$14.95.
Water Quality Testing Procedures and Information
PacketA set of downloadable files which will help you learn
water testing techniques which are an optimal combination of
simple, inexpensive, and accurate; improve the design of your
testing program; learn the limitations of testing, and how to
get more out of your interpretation of water testing results. 34
page download including editable files, Beta version, $14.95.
Rainwater Harvesting and Runoff
ManagementComing
soon: a new book addressing capturing runoff from a roof and
using it for indoor water needs. Other applications include
capturing rain runoff to flush accumulated irrigation salts
from the soil, and even using runoff to generate hydroelectric
power!
...and more... See www.oasisdesign.net/catalog

A consultation is a great way to optimize your system design

and ensure it fits well with your water supply, landscape, and
energy systems. We can design these other systems also. Most
design consultation can be done inexpensively off-site. Check
our website (oasisdesign.net/design/consult) or contact us for
more information.

124

n
II I '

r t